to have done amiss when in Compassion or Justice in the case of the Kings Servants he shall moderate the furies and unjust pretences of unrighteous and unreasonable Creditors or Complaynants and according to the Laws and reasonable Customs of England and the Kings most Honourable Houshold give them and the Kings Servants a just and fitting protection respite or time of Respiration the rather if he find that some of their wants and distresses either would not or could not so quickly or heavily have fallen upon them if the publique necessities and occasions had not for the Protection and safeguard of those very Creditors or Complainants comprehended in the universality of the people drawn away from the King the Money which might have enabled him to a more Regular and Ordinary way of paying them their Wages Salaries or Pensions And should if right be done unto it give a less cause of disturbance to the Will or Fansies of those who would have it otherwise than the course generally well approved and now holden in the City of London in the Lord Mayors Court called the Court of Requests or Conscience Indulged at the first by no greater Authority then an Act of Common Council made by the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of that City about the ninth year of the Raign of King Henry the eight continued by some other Acts of their Common Council and strengthned by some Subsequent Acts of Parliament where upon any Action Commenced in the Sheriffs Courts of Guildhall London whereby any debt under forty shillings is demanded of any Freeman of that City the Defendant may before or after Verdict mark it as it is there Termed in a Clarks book attending for that purpose the Lord Mayor in his house and by that manner of transferring the Actions or proceedings before his Lordship in his Court of Conscience procure as much of it as he shall be able to obtein with an Order in case of Poverty or weakness of estate to pay it by Six pence or twelve pence a Week or some other small manner of payment the Plaintiff being to be Arrested or Attached if he shall disobey or transgress his Lordships moderation therein And such or the like Moderations may Aswell be allowed to the Lord Chamberlain and other great Officers of the Kings most Honorable Houshold in the case of the Kings Servants as it is and hath been to the Judges of the Courts at Westminster in the case of all the Subjects of England where in Order to the Salvo Contenemento the saving the Reputation and support of failing or fainting Debtors or Defendants and the Moderata Misericordia Moderation in punishments which in the reconciling of Justice and Compassion is not only Injoyned and Pattern'd by our many Excellent Laws and reasonable Customes since the Norman Conquest but ordained by a Law of King Canutus many years before in his direction to his Judges Vt in mulctà Irrogandâ adhibeatur moderatio ut ad divinam Clementiam temperata hominibus tolerabilis esse videatur that in Punishments or Penalties there be such a moderation as may resemble the Divine Clemency or compassion and be the more Tolerable for men to bear it from whence or the like Dictates of Right Reason have Issued and been warranted the Authority of those Sage Expounders of our Laws and distributers of Justice in their Remission of Penalties of Bonds and Obligations Moderation of Costs and Mitigation of Penalties stay of Posteas Verdicts and Executions Arrests of Judgments granting Imperlances Lessening of Fines incertain in Copyhold estates and giving them a reasonable Time of payment disappointing of Rigors Extremities and Oppression by the relieving of the Oppressed wherein the wisdom of our Laws and the discretion and Office of Judges and Courts do very often in some or other of those and very many other the like well regulated Acts of their prudence care and authority which might be here instanced bless and make happy this Nation Such or the like Princely Cares of our Kings and Princes for their Domestiques or Servants faithfully serving and attending upon their Soveraign giving us the reason why above three hundred and forty years ago when Fleta wrote his Book It was the Custom of the Aula Regis the Kings Palace si de aliquo familiari i. e. famulari Regis fiat querimonia if a Complaint should be made of any of the Kings Servants or Houshold he should be summoned to answer and if he came not at the day prefixed he should be Attached which is by sureties or pledges or some of his Goods or Chattels taken whereby to compel him to appear and another day prefixed and if he did not then appear his body should be taken if he were personally summoned within the Virge and should be brought before the Steward and the Marshal having him in his custody videlicet sub tali loco partito secundùm Legem consuetudinem Hospitii in a place to that purpose according to the Law and Custom of the Kings Houshold appointed was to be answerable for him quòd nisi de corpore respondeat de petitione satisfacere tenebitur supposito quòd de corpore fuit seisitus but if the Marshal did not keep him in Custody whereby he might have his body forth coming he should if he was ever seised of his body make satisfaction to the party complainant But where any person who is not of the Kings Servants or House should desire to sue or prosecute a Debtor in the Court of the Kings Palace before the Steward thereof he was to produce the Bond wherein the Debtor obliged himself ro their Jurisdiction and in that case the Debtor was to be destrayned until he found pledges to answer the Action Et si Pleg invenerit quinquagesimum diem litis receperit illo die non comparuerit and if he should find pledges and not appear within fifty days after for so many days it seems was then allowed unto him he was to be Arrested and detained until he gave Bail it being also as reasonable that a like or a greater time should be given to one of the Kings Servants complained of before the Lord Steward or Lord Chamberlain or other great Officers of the Kings Houshold to whose Jurisdiction it belongeth for in those more Reverential Times and acknowledgments of Superiority It was a Rule as well as an Ancient Custom that mitiùs agendum cum familiaribus servientibus Regis dum tamen Domestici sint Regis Collaterales the Kings Servants in Ordinary and Domestiques were to be more gently and respectfully dealt with then strangers quòd primò debent per Mariscallum summoniri quam si supersederint tum primò Distringantur tertiò si necesse fuerit Attachientur and ought first to be summoned by the Marshal and if then they did not appear they were to be Distreined and at or after the third distress if need were should
voluntatem illius qui debet domum vel curiam or by doing any thing saith an old Manuscript of Coxford Abby or Monastery which is against the will of the owner of the House or Court which King Henry the first in his Laws de Jure Regis concerning some particulars of his Prerogative and Regality did number amongst the rest and accompt to belong unto him and his Successors and in the perclose of that Law which in some Copies is mentioned to be made assensu Baronum Regni Angliae by the consent of the Barons of England it is said haec sunt Dominica placita Regis nec pertinent vicecomitibus apparitoribus vel ministris ejus sine diffinitis praelocutionibus in forma sua these are the Rights and Jurisdictions belonging to the King in his Demesne and do not belong to any Sheriffs Apparitors or their Bayliffs unless especially granted unto them By which and the HVSFASTENE an old course and custom amongst the Saxons which ordained that every house with their FOLGHERES Followers or Servants should be in Franco Plegio in some Franke pleg or Liberty where by the Courts held in those places or Justice there to be had any controversies betwixt them and others or wrongs done by or unto them might be determined the rule of the Civil Law which in many of the Customs or Municipal Laws of this and other Nations was the guide or Pole star which conducted them being that actio sequitur forum rei the Action to which our Common Laws have ever since in their Real and other actions much agreed is to be tryed in the Court where the person or lands of the party defendant are that before recited law of K. Edw. the Confessor which amongst other his highly valued Laws Enacted that Arch-bishops Bishops Earls Barons and all that had Soc a liberty of distributive Justice in their Lands or Territories and Sac a power to fine or punish such as were found guilty either by complaining without a cause or proved to have done wrong to another which gave or confirmed many a liberty or set the example of the succeeding Kings gratifying many of their Subjects with the like in making them tanquam Reguli little Princes within their own Estates or Dominions should have suas Curias Consuetudines their Courts and liberties in their view of Frank Pleg Court Leets and Court Barons and should have under their Jurisdiction etiam milites suos proprios servientes such as served them in wars or held of them by the service thereof or were their domestick or houshold servants Item isti suos Armigeros alios sibi servientes and the Esquires and servants likewise of their servants saith Bracton expounding that Law of King Edward the Confessor the King certainly should not be denied his own Franchise view of Frank-Pleg or jurisdiction to do Justice where either his service or servants were concerned or at least to be complained unto before any violent course of Law should be taken in other Courts against them for otherwise if the King should not have always had such a franchise view of his Frank Pleg or Laws or Customs Hospitii sui as Fleta terms them of his Royal House or Palace there would have been some vestigia foot steps or track to be found either in the Antient Monuments and Memorials of our Laws or of those of later ages or of some other time That the King had been an immediate or single Complainant by way of Action for any abuses only offered to his servants or contempts to his person or Royal Authority which by a long most just and necessary prescription as far as time with his Iron teeth hath left us any remembrances was always left and reserved to the authority and Jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberberlain of the Kings House and the Kings other great Officers who by the Messengers of the Kings Chamber who in such particulars have been as the Lictores Sergeants or Bayliffs pro ista vice upon such occasions to arrest and bring them to the Justice of the King in his Royal Court or Palace and must needs be as lawful or a great deal more in his own particular immediate concernment as it is for the Lord Keeper of the great seal of England or Lord Chancellor to direct the Kings Serjeant at Arms allowed to attend that great and illustrious Officer and Superintendent of the Chancery by himself or his Deputy to arrest and take into his chargeable custody the person of any that shall have committed any grand or reiterated contempt against the process orders or decrees of that honourable Court or for that or the Court of Common-pleas to make the Warden of the Fleets men or the Virgers or Tipstaves attending upon the said Courts or for the Courts of Kings Bench or Exchequer to make the Marshals or Tipstaves thereof to be the Lictores or Messengers of their punishments and displeasure or as the house of Peers in Parliament do make use of the Kings Usher of the black rod and the house of Commons in Parliament of the Kings Serjeant at Arms nor could it have been likely that the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings house who in the Reigns of our Kings Edward the first second or third and probably by foregoing and elder constitutions did in the absence of the Lord Chief Justice of England vicem gerere execute in the Kings Court as Fleta tells us the Office or place of the said Lord Chief Justice should not retain in the Government of the Kings Servants and Houshold so much power as might protect them from injuries or their Royal Master from contempts or neglects of Duties or respects to his person Palace or servants for who that hath not bid defiance to his own Intellect as well as the wisdom of former ages can pretend any shew or colour of Reason that the King should want the power or authority to do as the late blessed Martyr King Charles the first did in the apprehension of certain Watermen in the year 1632. and committing them to Bridewell for refusing to carry the French Ambassador by Water upon the complaint of the Kings Master of the Barge in the year 1634. for the apprehension of William Hockley a Hackney-Coachman for refusing to wait upon the French Embassador or of John Philpots Post-master of Rochester for dis-respects to Monsieur St. German the French Embassador or in the year 1636. for the arrest of John Clifford of Chelsey upon the Complaint of the Spanish Embassador or to cause one Robert Armstrong to be taken into custody by one of his Messengers in the year 1639. for arresting the Post-Master of St. Albans who it may be for ought the offender then knew was bringing some Packet or Letters to the King or his Lords of the Councel for the discovery of some impending dangers which would need as sudden a prevention as the Gunpowder once intended and near atchieved Treason or to
obtained and would be no loosers but greater Gainers by it Do the Might and greatness of Princes and their power to give aids and Assistance where Alliance Interest or Leagues do require it or to retalliate Wrongs or Injuries done and received perswade a Priviledge and Civility to the Persons and Goods of the Embassadors and their Servants and retinue of one another although not bound thereunto by any Laws or Rules of Subjection or Allegiance And shall not a just fear Duty and Reverence of Subjects to their Kings and Princes Civility good Manners Gratitude Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy Fear and Command of God and a dayly protection by the Kings Power Laws and Justice of themselves and their Estates Honour Reputation and all that can be of value unto them from Forreign and Domestick dangers wrongs or oppressions invite them to a forbearance of that Barbarous and undutifull way of Arresting any of his Servants without a complaint first made or licence procured to do it Or how can such a one or any of his Children without shame or confusion of Face beg or hope for Mercy or Pardon from the King for man-slaughter or some other offence mischance or forfeiture when but a week or a little before they have had so small a care of their Duty and respect unto him or their many Obligations as to disturb his Service and necessary Affairs and disparage his Servants and do all they can to ruine and undo them by an Arrest or Imprisonment without licence When at the same time they would readily subscribe to the reasonableness of the Kings delivering and freeing from Arrest the Lord Mayor of London punishing those that should do it If for permitting in the Strand or any other place out of his Liberty that the Cities Sword the Ensign or Mark of Honour given unto it within its proper Jurisdiction to be carri'd up he should be Arrested or if he or any of the Sheriffs or Aldermen should in their Passage to Whitehall to attend the King when he commanded them be Arrested upon any other Action Will not a Tenant to a Lord of a Mannor who receives not so great a protection from him nor hath so great a need of him as every Subject hath of the Kings Grace and Favour be thought by all his Neighbours to be more than a little out of his Wits that should adventure his displeasure by Arresting the Steward of his Court Valet de Chambre Coachman Butler Brewer Hors-keeper or any of his Servants without leave or licence or denial of Justice upon his Complaint first had And will they not be deemed to be more Mad that shall so far forget themselves and their duty to the King as to Arrest without licence any of the Servants of their Soveraign which is the only Rock of defence and Succour which they have to flee unto in all their distresses or for Mercy which is not seldome needed upon any Offences or transgressions against him or his Laws May not the King punish Contempts and breaches of Priviledges as well as those that do subordinately Act by the Authority of Him and His Laws or not cause as much to be done in Order to the proâervation of their Authority and Jurisdictions as they usually do unto any that should disturb the necessity and duty of their places Or may not the King as supreme Magistrate cause any that shall transgress the limits of their obedience in Arresting his Servants without licence to be Arrested or Imprisoned for such an affront or contempt of Majesty and the Supreme Power when it hath been ordinarily done and justified by some Lords of Mannors and Liberties in the Case of Sheriffs and Bailiffs presuming to Arrest any man within their Liberty without a Writ of non Omittas propter aliquam libertatem or special Warrant where the Lord of the Mannor hath neglected to do it Or must the King when any wrong or injury shall be done to his Servants suffer such contempt to be remedyless and only say why do you do so who when he doth cause the undutifulness and unmannerliness of such Offenders to be punished by a few days gentle restraint cannot with any truth or Reason be said to have given away their Debts when at the most it is but a small delay and doth many times occasion them to be sooner and less chargeably paid than it would be with an Action or Suit and the many Animosities Vexations and Heats which do usually attend Actions or Suits at Law Did our Magna Charta prohibit or give away any of the Liberties and Priviledges of the King and his Servanâs which are necessary for the Support and just means of Government and that high Authority with which God and the Law have intrusted him Can the King by his Writ cause a man or his Cattel or Goods to be Arrested and taken in Withernam untill the person of a man or his Cattel or goods wrongfully Arrested be delivered or freed from restraint and shall it not be as lawfull for the King by Arresting or Imprisoning the Party that did or procured it to enforce the delivery of a Servant wrongfully or unduly Arrested without his leave or licence first obtained Is the Kings Service the only cause of the Priviledge of Parliament so operative and powerfull in its effects as a Member of the house of Commons newly elected is so entituled to his Priviledge as before his admission or Oath taken the Infringers thereof have been severely punished as it was upon great debate and Examination adjudged in Parliament in the Case of William Johnson a Burgesse of Parliament in the first year of the Reign of Queen Mary and the like for Arresting upon an Execution Sir Richard Fitzherbert Knight a Member of Parliament in the 34th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and that kind of Priviledge so Watched and Guarded and in all its parts and circumstances so taken care of and inviolably kept As it may not be renounced or quitted by any one Member without a breach of Priviledge to all the rest nor is any leave to be given upon Petition or any the most urgent necessities of a Plaintiff or Creditor to molest or Imprison any of them or their Servants during the Session of Parliament and the time of Priviledge allowed them before and after them And cannot the people of England be well content and think themselves to be in a better Condition when in the Case of the Priviledge of the Kings Servants they may in the time of Parliament or without have licence upon a reasonable time prefixed for satisfaction to take their course and proceed at Law against them Shall the Vallies rejoyce in their Springs and pleasant Fountains and the Spring or Fountain it self that distributeth those living and refreshing Waters have no part thereof Hath the Chamberlain of the Lord Mayor or City of London Power to commit a Freeman of that City to Ward So that he do
King hath been accompted and is and ought to be the Interest of all the People of England and that the Servants and retinue of a Soveraign Prince who hath given and permitted to his Subjects so many large Liberties Immunities Exemptions Customs and Priviledges should not want those Exemptions Immunities Customs and Priviledges which are so Justly claimed by them Chap. XXI 587 Errors of the Printer PAge 22. line 2. dele now intersere after p. 34. l. 25. dele to p. 43. l. 4. dele and intersere by p. 52. l. 22 dele feirce and incult intersere rude and uncivill p. 61. l. 25. intersere always p. 62. l. 2. intersere in p. 88. l. 26. dele not p. 111. l. 28. dele yet p. 137. l. 23. dele not p. 159. interscribe Baile p. 166. l. 4. dele as p. 197. l. penult dele or interscribe as p. 217. l. 28. dele the Corsaires p. 219. l. 22. dele not p. 241. l. 6. dele unto p. 265. l. 10. dele during the and interline in a more âitting place p. 416. l. 13. r. Aevo p. 423. l. 17. r. Conquestorem 549. in margin r. Cromwell p. 453. l. 2. intersere pleg l. 4. r. distringas l. 14. intersere them p. 460. in margin r. Valentinus l. 16. r. nobiles p. 461. in margin r. Cassanaeus l. 10. r. noblemen p 475 l. 2. r. Commons p. 527. l. 19. intersere of Westminster p. 552. from thence to page 555. mispaged in p. 543. l. 4. intersere it p. 596. l. 27. interline of p. 614. l. 20. dele an Asilum or intersere a which with some other literal faults redundancies omissions of particles and Errors of the Press are desired to be amended and excused The Reasons aswell as Law of the Priviledges and Freedom of the Kings Servants in Ordinary from Arrests and Troubles of and in their Persons and Estates before Leave or Licence obtained of the King their Royal Master and Soveraign IF the Rights of Soveraignty and Majesty and it's Legal Rational and necessary Protection and Preservation of the People in their several Interests and Priviledges That due care which they ought to take of him and the means wherewith he should do it the Honour of the King and the support and maintainance of it the Reverence and Respect which they should upon all occasions manifest to their Prince and Common Parent and the influence which all or most of his affairs have or may have in their successes and consequences Good or Evil upon all or the greatest part of the Affairs of the People were not enough as it is abundantly sufficient to perswade them to an abstaining or abhorrency from the Incivility of late practiced to Arrest or Trouble the Persons or Estates of the Kings Servants in Ordinary before Leave or Licence obtained of the King their Royal Master and the Soveraign aswel of the one as the other For he that hath not been a very great stranger to reason and the Customes and Laws of this Nation aswell as others may without any suspicion of Error acknowledge that it is and will be a due to Majesty and the Servants of it Yet the Civility long ago in Fashion and not yet abolished in the Neighbourhood and Custom of Mankinde one towards the other might invite them unto it When it hath been heretofore a part of the Law of Nations Nature Christianity Neighbourhood Civility and the Practice thereof which no Law or Good Custome hath yet repealed not to Arrest or bring into question at Law a Neighbours Servant for a Debt due or Injuries received without an Intimation or Notice first given or a kind of Licence obtained to or from that Servants Master to the end that the Love and Respect which ought to be betwixt them might not be dislocated or disturbed and the offending Servants Masters attendance Business or Affairs prejudiced And being constantly held and observed betwixt Friends Relations Kinred Neighbours and even Strangers where any Respect was thought fit to be tendered did probably give a Rise or beginning to that long and experimented Adage or Proverb Love me and Love my Dog Insomuch as a Neighbours Dog causing some mischief or Inconveniences by killing of Sheep or biting such as he supposed were not well willers to the Family and came to his Masters house is not troubled or put into any danger of Beating or Hanging without a Complaint first made to his Master thereof for where the Master hath any respect his Servants and all that do belong to his Family do not seldom partake of it From all which or some of those Causes or Grounds Rights of Soveraignty and duty of the People tacito rerum antiquitatis consensu by a long usage and consent of time and Antiquity came that hitherto uncontroul'd usage and Custom allowed and Countenanced by our Common Laws and reasonable Customs not contradicted or abrogated by any Act of Parliament or Statute Laws That the Kings Maenial Servants and Officers in Ordinary should not be Taken Imprisoned Arrested or Compelled to appear in any Courts of Justice in Civil Actions or Causes without a Petition for Leave or Licence obtained First delivered unto the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold or other great Officer of the Kings under whose more Immediate Jurisdiction such servant or Officer is whereupon after a Citation of the party and if for debt or otherwise a short and reasonable time as six moneths or something less which in the Ordinary course of Process and Proceedings at Law and the vacations and absence of the Terms is not seldom as soon as they could by Arrest or Compulsion arrive or come unto their Ends and many times a moneth or a Fortnights time prefixed for satisfaction is as easily procured as asked SECT I. That there is a Greater Honour due unto the Palace and House of the King then unto any of the Houses of his Subjects FOr we may well believe that our Laws Reasonable Customs and the Practice of our Forefathers were not out of the way or mistaken in their Respects to the Servants of their Prince when his Aula House or Court wherein he and they Inhabited as a place separate from Common uses or Addresses tanquam Sacra had a Majestatem quandam certain awe or Majesty belonging to it which was as Ancient as the days of King Ahasuerus that great Monarch of Persia and Media who Raigned from India unto Ethiopia over an hundred and twenty seven Provinces when Esther as we are informed by Sacred Writ could alleage that all the Kings Servants and the People of the Kings Provinces did know that whosoever whether man or woman should come unto the King into the Inner Court who is not called there is one Law of his to put him to death Except such to whom the King shall hold out the Golden Scepter that he may live And none might enter into the Kings Gate clothed with sackcloth Tiridates the great King of Armenia
the Lord Percy now Earl of Northumberland Mr. Jermyn now Earl of S. Albans and Mr. Henry Piercy in the Privy Gallery or Lodgings with blew Ribbons tyed or hanging about the upper part of their Legs or Boots he was so displeased therewith as he would not be pacified until he had called for a pair of Scissers and had with his own hands cut or clipped them off And well might it be observed in England when the Vltima Thule and our less Civilized Neighbours of Scotland Infected with the Careless and over-bold behaviour of some of their late Presbyterian Clergy towards Royal Majesty are not without those dutyful respects of being bare and uncovered in the Presence Chamber or Chief Rooms of their Kings Palaces although they be absent and out of the Kingdom and when any Acts of Parliament are agreed upon the Kings high Commissioner Presiding in Parliament in his absence bringeth the Acts of Parliament to the Kings Chair of Estate upon which and a Velvet Cushion the Royal Scepter being laid the Lord Commissioner kneeling before it and touching it with the Scepter gives a Sanction and Authority unto those or any other Acts of Parliament in that Submiss and dutyful manner touched therewith and makes them to be of as great Validity as if they had been Ratified by the Royal Signature And with more or a greater Reason might Kings and Free-Princes claim a Veneration to their Palaces or Houses when Bishops Antiently had their Episcopia or Houses so Respected as a Synod or Council thought fit to Order it a too much or more then ordinary respect when they Decreed Suggerendum est ex Divino mandato intimandum Regiae Majestati ut Episcopium quod domus Episcopi appellatur Venerabiliter reverenter introeat c. It is to be declared and intimated to the Kings Majesty that he enter the Episcopium which is the House of the Bishop Reverently And not very long ago in the Raign of that Vertuous King Charles the first an Action of Battery being brought by Sir Francis Wortley Knight and Baronet against Sir Thomas Savile Knight afterwards Lord Savile and Earl of Sussex for assaulting and wounding him at Westminster Hall door one or both of them being then Parliament men the Jury gave a Verdict for Sir Francis Wortley with three thousand pounds Damages the Offence being aggravated to that height in regard that it was done so near or in the Face of the Court of Common Pleas the Judges then sitting which could have no greater or better reason for heigthning that offence then that it was done in that Ancient Palace of our Kings and the Place where the King Administred Justice to His People by His Judges who Represented His Authority in that their limitted Jurisdiction And but lately when sitting the Parliament in the moneth of December 1666 the Lord Saint John of Basing Eldest Son of the Marquess of Winchester being a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament had in Westminster Hall no Court of Justice then and there sitting pulled Sir Andrew Henly Knight by the Nose whereby he according to the opinion of Sir Edward Coke had forfeited his Lands Goods and Chattels although his reason offered for it that the offence was so punishable because it might tend ad impedimentum Justiciae to the hinderance of Justice was not alone sufficient for that it may more truly be understood to be propter venerationem loci for the Reverence and Respect due to the Kings House or Palace was so affrighted with the Penalty and consequence of that Offence as he procured the House of Commons who could not tell how to believe the unhappy heretofore unadvised and never to be proved Doctrine of the pretended Soveraignty of that House to go with their Speaker unto the King at Whitehall and intercede for his Pardon And shortly after at a Conference in the Painted Chamber betwixt the Lords and Commons in Parliament some hot words happening betwixt the Marquess of Dorchester and the Duke of Buckingham who upon the lye given him by the Marquess of Dorchester had pulled him by the Nose or plucked off his Peruque they were both Committed Prisoners to the Tower of London and within two days after upon their submission to the House of Peers Released but the Duke of Buckingham coming after to the Kings Court at Whitehall before he had asked leave of Him or His Pardon the King did forbid him the Court alleadging that howsoever the House of Peers in Parliament had pardoned him for the Offence Committed against them yet he had not forgiven him the Offence which he had Committed against him And in support of those Observations and honors so justly due unto the Place of His Royal Residences the Lord Chamberlain did lately cause a Constable to be Imprisoned for an Ignorant and Indiscreet pursuit of a French Lacquaie who had slain an Irish Foot-boy into Whitehal and as far as the Royal Lodgings of the Queen where he took him and shortly after deservedly Imprisoned one Mr. White a Merchant for bringing two of the Kings Marshals-men into the Privy-galleries and neer the Council-chamber-door the King sitting in Council bade them Arrest an Agent or Envoy of the Duke of Curlands and he would Indempnifie them Who were notwithstanding severely punished Which just and fitting observations due unto the Mansions of Kings and Princes Cromwel that Leader and Conductor of the Rable and Scumme of a Rebellious part of the people and grand contemner of all Authority but what himself had usurped and of all Ancient Orders Rites Customs and Usages did not think to be unbecoming that Eagles nest into which He and His devouring Harpyes had crept and the House wherein the Kings Honour lately dwelt when he Committed Sir Richard Ingoldsby then one of his Colonels but afterwards a Penitent and Loyal Subject of His Majesty that now is Prisoner to the Tower of London for striking one in the Stone-gallery at Whitehall And so unquestionable was a more then Common or Ordinary Honour and Respect to be given to the Houses and Courts of our Kings as some of our Ancient Nobility have by that honour which our Kings did Originally confer upon their Persons in the Grant of Earldoms and Honours gained by an Usage of Time and Custom some more then Common Priviledges to their Chief Houses Castles and Lands anciently belonging to their Earldoms So as their Lands belonging to their Earldoms have been exempted from the Contribution of the Wages of Knights of the Shire elected to be Parliament men and their Houses from any Search by any Constable or Ordinary Officer and in all or many of the Records or Memorials of the Kingdom have been frequently called or termed Honours as the Honours of Oxford Arundel Lincoln Leicester c. for the Lands belonging to those Earldoms and there is to this day a Custome at Arundel Castle that none but the Earl thereof the Soveraign and Heir apparent exempted
380 Ordained that the Earls and Masters of Requests should be exempted from all other Publike charges and upon Complaints that in their Progress their Servants received or took too much of the People did Ordain that when the Emperours went in Progress sacros vultus inhiantibus fortè populis inferentes should bless the people with their Presence their Servants and Attendants nè quid accipiant Immodicum should not be unreasonable or Immoderate in it the right use of which Ancient Custome or manner of the Oblations or gratifications of Subjects Inhabiting in any great Town or City when our Kings of England passed by or thorough them being probably derived or come unto us from this or the like Laudable Observances of Rights and Dues to Majesty in return of Gratitudes to their Prince His Followers or Attendants for procuring or putting him in minde to come that way and give them the well-come opportunity of receiving new Graces or Favours or making acknowledgements for many formerly bestowed upon them by him or his Progenitors By a Rescript or Constitution of the Emperours Theodosius and Valentinianus about the year of our Lord 386 aeternâ lege as they there term it by a Law for ever or unalterable Omnes cubicularii All the Chamberlains or Bed-chamber-men Except some of greater Eminencie therein mentioned were to be freed from Pourveyance and Cart-taking à sordidis muneribus from all Publike and Inferior Offices not concerning the Immediate Service of the Prince and their Houses in the City from the Harbingers upon great Penalties unto such as should molest them therein and the reason thereof is therein given nè sordidis astricti muneribus decus ministerii quòd militando videbantur adepti otii tempore quietis amittant to the end that the Dignity and quality of their Places which they obtained by their Services should not be lost in the times of rest and quiet and Inter Cubiculares amongst those which attended the Royal-chambers sunt qui sacrae vesti deputati sunt those which belong to the Royal Robes primicerii sacri Cubiculi id est qui primum locum gradumque obtinent inter Cubicularios and the Primicerii or Chief of the Bed-chamber probably the Gentlemen of the Bed-chamber were comprehended amongst them The Emperour Leo about the year of our Lord 460 in a Rescript Johanni Comiti Magistro Officiorum the Great Master of His Houshold ordained that Cubicularios tam sacri Cubiculi sui quam venerabilis Augustae quos utrosque certum est obsequiis occupatos Aulae penetraliis inhaerentes diversa Judicia obire non posse ab observatione aliorum Tribunalium liberati essent their Chamberlains or Bed-chamber-men as also those of the Empress or Imployed in any of their Services and the affairs of the Court who could not attend divers Tribunals should be exempted from the Obedience of them ut in sublimitatis solummodò tuae Judicio propositas adversus se excipiunt actiones to the end that they might upon occasion be only summoned to his Honourable Tribunal and the like Priviledge saith Cuiacius was thereby also allowed unto those qui sacrae vesti deputati fuerunt which belonged to the Royal Wardrobe The Emperour Zeno about the year of our Lord 480 Decreed that the Senatours or other Honourable Persons should not be obliged to give Bail to any Action and illustre habent privilegium ut de eorum Criminibus nemo cognoscat inconsulto Principe That the Nobility should not be tryed in any Actions Criminal without the Licence of the Prince first obtained as is now done in England by the Kings especial Commission granted to a Lord or one of the Nobility to be as a Lord High-steward for such a Tryal or Purpose And a Servant to another once entertained in the Emperours Service being otherwise restrained became instantly a Freeman and might make his last Will and Testament and the reason given quod hoc privilegium videatur principale esse proprium Majestatis ut non Famulorum sicut privatae Conditionis homines sed liberorum honestis utatur obsequiis periniquum est eos duntaxat pati fortunae deterioris incommoda that it was a Principle or Property of Majesty that the Emperours Servants should be in a better Condition then the Servants of Private-men and it would be unjust that his Servants should be in as bad a Condition as those of the Common-people The Servants of the Emperours house did enjoy a Priviledge ut à solo principe vel ab eo cui is per sacros Apices injunxisset judicabantur that they should be Judged by the Prince himself or one Authorized by His Commission By a Law or Rescript of the aforesaid Emperour Zeno it was Ordained that nè ad diversa tracti viri devoti silentiarii judicia sacris abstrahi videantur obsequiis eos qui quemlibet devotissimorum silentiariorum Scholae Company or Regiment Civilitèr vel etiam Criminalitèr pulsare maluerint minimè eum ex cujuslibet alterius judicio nisi ex judicio tantummodo viri Excellentissimi Magistri Officiorum conveniri to the end none of the Emperours guards in the Palace and at the Court Gates then called Silentiarii probably from their care and watchfulness should be drawn or hindred from their Duty and Services that those which had any Action or Cause of Complaint against them either Civilly or Criminally should not compel them to come before any Judge whatsoever but the Lord Steward or Chamberlain of the Emperor's Houshold By the Salicque Laws or of the Francks the Ancestors of our Neighbors the French who then though now they find it not to be so thought themselves to be as free as their name signified made by Pharamond their first King toto caetu populi by the good liking of all that people assembled at Saltzburgh in Franconia in Germany in the year of our Redeemer 424. Qui in Jussione Regis fuerit occupatus he which was in the Kings Service by his Command and so are all the Kings Servants rationally intended to be manniri non potest was not to be cited or summoned to appear in any Court of Justice which other men were not to disobey under very great pecuniary Mulcts and was a Constitution so acceptable to the people as Charlemain long after in his Confirmation of that and the Laws of the Ribuarians and some other Nations declares them to be non ex sua adinventione sed Communi Consilio et prout cunctis placuit prudentioribus Regni not of his own Invention or framing but by Common assent or good liking of the most prudent and wise men of his Kingdome By the Laws of the Wisigoths from whence the Spaniards do so boast to have been descended as when they would signifie one most nobly descended they do usually say he is Ne de los Godos he is the Son of a Goth where it was
expresly provided that the Testimony of Servants should not be allowed in Criminal Matters there was an exception for the better sort of the Kings Servants King Ina who Raigned here over the West Saxons about the year of our Redeemer 712 amongst his Laws Suasu Heddae et Erkinwaldi Episcoporum suorum omnium Senatorum et natu majorum Sapientum populi sui in magna servorum dei frequentia by the advice of Hedda and Erkenwald his Bishops all his Senators Elders and wise men of his people and Commonalty attended by many of the Clergy did ordain several degrees of Mulct or punishment for breach of peace in Towns according to the qualities of the owners or Lords thereof videlicet in oppido Regis vel Episcopi pacis violatae paena 120 solidorum in oppido Senatoris seu Ealdormannes ruptae pacis 80 solidorum in oppido Cyninges Thegnes seu ministri Regis 60 solidorum et in oppido custodis pagant cujuscunque predia possidentis pacis tributae multa 35 solidorum censeatur that is to say In every Town of the King or a Bishop for breach of the peace 120 shillings in the Town of a Senator or Alderman 80 shillings in a Town of a Servant of the Kings 60 shillings and in the Town of the Bayliffe or Reeve of any other man having Lands 35 shillings Charles the great or Charlemain Emperor of the West and King of France who began his raign in the year 768 and after him the Emperor Lodovicus by his goodness and Piety sirnamed Pius or the Godly considering that in viros animosos plus honoris posse quam opum remunerationem that to men of Courage and Spirit Honor was more in esteem then Riches edicto mandaverunt ut ipsis in tota ditione sua honor haberetur did by their Edicts which in those more obedient times when Subjects were not so Critical as too many of us now are in their Princes Commands by a Torture of farre fetched or Irrational Interpretations put upon their just Authority in order to the Weal-Publick provide that in all their Dominions an Honour and respect should be given to their Domesticks or Servants And therefore Antiquity and the Learned Bignonius were not guilty of any Error when they adjudged that Dignitas Domestici the Dignity of the Kings Houshold Servants fuit non contemneâda was not to be contemned but was greatly honoured under the Raigns of the first and second Kings of France and about the Raign of Clodoveus or Lodovicus the 12th King of the first Race of the Kings of France who Raigned about the year of our Lord and Saviour 648. Inter praecipuos Regni ministros saepe enumerantur Comites Consiliarii Domestici et Majores Domûs c. Amongst the principal of whom were reckoned the Lord Steward Earls Counsellors of Estate Chancellor and Chamberlane the most Honourable and great men of the Kingdome who did sometimes in the Court attend the King in the hearing and determining of Causes and were with those great Officers of the Houshold accounted to be de Honestate palatii seu specialiter ornamento Regali a part of the Honor of the Kings Palace or Court and an Ornament to the Royal Dignity and the Domesticks and Servants of that great and vertuous Charlemain had that respect given unto them which a just consideration of the Honor of their Soveraign and concernment of the Weal-publique in his business or affairs had procured for them as Solebant subditi non modo reâipere missos et legatos Principis Comites Duces et etiam ministros verum et viaticum eis pro unius cujusque dignitate praestare the people did use not only to receive the Kings or Princes Earls Dukes and their Attendants but to give them Entertainment according to their several degrees or qualities it having been ordained by him ut de missis suis vel de caeteris propter utilitatem suam Iter agentibus nullus mansionem eis contradicere praesumat that no man should presume to deny lodging and entertainment unto any imployed in his service King Alfred or Alured who began his Raign here about the year of our Lord 870 and had resident in his house the Sonns of many of his Nobility which did attend him did in that time of the more incult and fierce behaviour of the old English and Saxons and their Neighborhood with their Enemies the usurping Danes take care in the League or peace which he was constrained to make with King Guthrun the Dane to provide that in case of a Minister Regis incusatus as the Version or Translation renders it any Servant of the Kings accused for Homicide Et id Juris in omni lite and the same Law to be in every other Action or Suit there should be a Jury of 12 of the Kings Servants or if the party grieved should be the Servant of another King non nihil inferior not much inferior to the Kings probably intended of King Guthruns it should be tryed by undecim sui equales unumque Ministrum Regium by eleven of his Peers or Equals and one of the Kings Servants added unto them And it was then accompted such an honor to serve the King as our Learned Selden informs us he that that had a House with a Bell a Porters Lodge and was fit to be sent on his Princes Message or had a distinct Office in the Kings Court was accompted in those early daies as a Thainus or Nobilis a person or Honor. King Edward the Confessor whose Laws the vanquished English after the Conquest took to be so much a blessing as they hid them for preservation under the high Altar at Westminster and by the importunity of their prayers and tears procured King William the Conqueror to confirm and restore them did ordain that the Earls and Barons Et omnes qui habuerint sacham et socam Theam et Infangthiefe etiam milites suos et proprios servientes scilicet dapiferos pincernas Camerarios pistores et Cocos sub suo friburgo habeant et si cui foris facerent et Clamor vicinorum de eis assurgeret ipsi tenerent eos rectitudini in Curia sua And all those who had Courts Leete or Baron amongst their Tenants a priviledge granted by the King to have a Jurisdiction over their Tenants and to fine or Amerce such as failed to make good their Actions try and punish Theeves taken in their Mannors or Liberties to have Villains and Bond-men and a propriety in their Villains Lands or Goods and to have subject to their Mannors those that held of them by Knight-Service or were to attend them in the Warrs and their Domestique Servants as Sewers Butlers Chamberlains Bakers and Cooks should upon any wrong done to their Neighbors or Complaint made of them see right to be done unto them in their Courts and certainly he that gave them those Liberties to hear and determine
Palace the Court of Justice therein kept being called Capitalis Curia Domini Regis the Kings chief Court where those Justices or Judges then sate and where the great Assize or Writs of Assize in pleas of Land happily succeeding in the place of the turbulent fierce and over-powring way of duels or waging of battels for the determination of pretended Rights were tryed Juries impanelled and a Fine passed and Recorded before the Bishops of Ely and Norwich and Ralph de Glanvile our Learned Author Justitiis Domini Regis et aliis fidelibus et familiaribus Domini Regis ibi tunc presentibus the Kings Justices and other of his Subjects and Houshold Assizes of novel desseisin and prohibitions to Ecclesiastical Courts awarded And was so unlikely to permit any Breach of his Servants just priviledges as he did about the 24th year of his Raign not only confirm all his Exchequer Servants Dignities and priviledges used and allowed in the Raign of King Henry the first his Grandfather but although Warrs and many great troubles assaulted him did when he laid an Escuage of a Mark upon every Knights Fee whereby to pay his hired Soldiers not at all charge his Exchequer Servants for that as the black Book of Exchequer that antient Remembrancer of the Exchequer priviledges informs us Mavult enim Princeps stipendiarios quam Domesticos Bellicis apponere casibus for the King had rather expose his hired men of Warre to the inconveniences thereof then his Domestique or Houshold Servants and being as willing as his Grandfather to free them from being cited or troubled before his delegated or Commissionated Courts of Justice or Tribunals would in all probability be more unwilling that those which more neerly and constantly attended upon his person health or safety should by any suits of Law be as to their persons or estates molested or diverted from it nor could there be howsoever any danger of arresting the Kings Servants in ordinary without leave or Licence first obtained in the after-Raigns of King Richard the first and King John when Hubert Walter Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England in the 6th year of the Raign of King John was likewise Lord Chief Justice of England And the now chief Courts of the Kingdome as the Chancery Kings-Bench Common-Pleas and Exchequer were radically and essentially in the King and in the distribution of Justice of the said Kings and their Royal Predecessors resided in their Council and great Officers in their Courts attending upon their Persons For many of the Suits and Actions at the Common Law and even those of the Court of Common Pleas untill the ninth year of the Reign of King Henry the third when it was by Act of Parliament forbidden to follow the Kings Court but to be held in loco certo a place certain in regard that the King and his Court were unwilling any more to be troubled with the Common Pleas or Actions betwixt private persons which were not the Kings Servants were there prosecuted And untill those times it cannot be less then a great probability that all the Trades-mens debts which were demanded of Courtiers and the Kings Servants were without Arrests or Imprisonments to be prosecuted and determined in the Court before the Steward and the Chamberlain of the Kings House and that the King who was so willing was so willing to ease his Subjects in their Common Pleas or Actions by freeing them from so chargeable an attendance which the prosecution of them would commonly if not necessarily require did not thereby intend that they should have a Liberty without leave or Licence first obtained to molest any of his Servants in ordinary in their Duty or Attendance upon his Royal person and Affairs by prosecuting Arresting imprisoning or compelling to appear before other Judges or Tribunals any of his Servants in ordinary Who in those times may well be thought to enjoy a freedom from Arrests or Imprisonment of their Bodies untill leave or Licence first obtained when Hugo de Patishul Treasurer unto King Henry the third in the nineteenth year of his Raign Philip Lovel in the 34th year of the Raign of that King and John Mansel Keeper of the great Seal of England in the 40th year of that Kings Raign were whilst they held their several other places successively Lord Chief Justices of England When the Court of Chancery being in the absence of Parliaments next under our Kings the Supreme Court for the order and distribution of Justice the Court of the Kings Bench appointed to hear and determine Criminal matters Actions of Trespass and Pleas of the Crown and the Court of Exchequer matters and Causes touching the King's Revenue were so much after the 9th year of the Raign of King Henry the third and the dispensing with the Court of Common Pleas from following the person of our Kings to their several Houses or Palaces or as their Affairs invited them to be sometimes Itinerant or resident in several other parts of the Kingdom did follow the King and were kept in their Houses or Palaces notwithstanding that when like the Sun in his Circuit distributing their Rayes and Comforts to all the parts of the Kingdome by turns they were according to their occasion of busines sometimes at York or Carlile in the North and at other times for their pleasures or divertisements kept their Courts or festivals at Glocester or Nottingham and their Parliaments sometimes at Marlebridge in Wiltshire or Ruthland in Wales or at Glocester or Lincoln For it may be evidenced by the Retorn or days given in Writs and antient Fines levied before the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster after the allowance or favour given to that Court not to be ambulatory and to the people not to be at so great trouble or charges as would be required to follow the King and his Court in a throng of Followers and other business for the obtaining of Justice in their suits or Actions as well small or often emerging as great and seldome happening the days of old also affirming it that the Kings Palace at Westminster in the great Hall where the Court of Common Pleas hath ever since dwelt some places thereunto adjoyning retaining at this day the Name of the Old Palace did not cease to be the Palace or Mansion House of our Kings of England untill that King Henry the 8th by the fall of the pompous Cardinal Woolsey the building of St. Jame's House and inclosing the now Park thereof with a brick wall made White-Hall to be his House or Palace but kept the name as well as business of the Palace or Mansion House of our Kings of England And the Courts of Chancery King's Bench and Exchequer did after the fixation of the Common Pleas or Actions of the people to a certain place in the Kings Palace at Westminster being then his more settled and constant habitation and Residence for his not a few
out and Sealed by Officers and Clerks of the Court whence they issued without the privity or knowledge of the King or his Lord Chancellour or Keeper of the Great Seal of England or the Judges of the Court of Common-Pleas and that if those Writs which now and for many yeers past to the great ease of the people have been made in an ordinary way and course at smal rates and charges as anciently as the Raign of King John and King Henry the third should have been made by the privity of the Chancellour or Chief-Justice or of the King himself or granted upon Motion or Petition and read and recited in the Kings presence or in Court by or before the Chancellor or Chief-Justice when such Actions Writs or Complaints were few and seldome yet when afterwards they should appear to be mistaken too sodainly or erroniously granted or that the King or the Court have as in humane affairs it may often happen been misinformed or deceived therein such Writs or Process surprize or mistake may be revoked and rectified and the Writs and proceedings thereupon contradicted by the King or his Authority as hath been done in the Writs of Supersedeas to the Barons of the Exchequer to stay their proceedings in Common-Pleas or to the Marshalsea of matters wherein they have no Jurisdiction that known Rule of Law declaring the Kings Letters Patents of the Grant of Lands to a man in Fee or Fee Tayl to be void where the King is deceived in his Grant or as King Henry the 3d. superseded his Writ de Excommunicato capiendo to Arrest or take an excommunicated person because he was circumvented in the granting of the Writ or made void his Conge d' Eslire to the Priory of Carlisle confirmed an election upon a former Conge or licence or as is often done by that common usual way of Supersedeas made by the King upon matters ex post facto or better information or by his Justices and Courts of Justice by Writs of Supersedeas quia improvide or Erronice or datum est nobis intelligi in regard of misinformation Error or better information or in the vacating of Recoveries Judgments discharging Actions for abuse of the Courts or ill obteining of them or their Writs Process freeing of prisoners taken Arrested by Writs or Process not duly warranted And that such an indirect and feigned prosecution of the Kings Servants to the Utlary designed only to abridge the King of his regal Rights forfeit and annul the Priviledges of his Servants and obstruct and hinder his service and attendance aswell deserves a punishment as that which was usual in our Laws in the Reigns of King Henry the 3d. and King Edward the 1. for indirect recoveries or Judgments obtained by a malitious surprize falshood or non-Summons as the ensuing Writ will evidence Rex vic Salutem praecipimus tibi quod habeas coram Justitiariis nostris c talem petentem scilicet ad audiend Judicium suum considerationem Curiae nostre de hoc quod ipse per malitiam manifestam falsitatem fecit disseysiri talem de tanta Terra cum pertinentiis c. Et unde cum ipse B nullam haberet summonitionem optulit se idem A versus eum itaqd terra capta fuit in manum nostram semel secundo per quani defalt idem A terram illam recuperavit desicut illa defalta nulla fuit ut dic catalla ipsius B in eadem terra tunc inventa ei occasione praedâcta ablata eidem sine dilatione reddi facias restitui Praecipimus etiam tihi qd habeas coram c. ad eundem Terminum A B per quos summonitio prima facta fuit in Curia nostra Testata praeterea quatuor illos per quorum visum terra illa capta fuit in manum nostram per quos captio illa testificata fuit in Curia nostra c. etiam illos per quos secunda summonitio facta fuit testata ad certificandum Justitiarios nostros de praedictis Summonitionibus Captionibus Et habeas ibi hoc breve Teste c. The King to the Sheriff talis loci County or place sendeth greeting We command you That you have before our Justices c. such a Demandant that is to say to hear the Judgement Order of our Court in regard that he by malice and manifest fraud caused such a one the Tenant to be disseised of so much Land with the appurtenances c. whereupon when the said E the Tenant or Defendant had no Summons the said A the Plaintiff or Demandant did so prosecute that Action that the Land was taken into our hands a first and second time by which default the said A recovered the Land whereas there was no default as was alledged and took the Goods and Chattels of the said B then found upon the Land and taken from him by that means We command you that without delay you cause the same to be rendred and restored unto him that you also have before our Justices at the same time A and B by whom the first Summons was made and certified into our Court c. and likewise those by whom the second Summons was made whereby our said Justices may of the aforesaid Summons and Captions be certified and have you there this Writ Witnesse c. Or that which King Richard the Second did in Parliament in the fifteenth yeer of his Raign inflict upon Sir VVilliam Bryan for procuring a Bull of the Pope to be directed unto the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to excommunicate some that had broken his house and carried away his Writings by committing him prisoner to the Tower of London that fact and doing of his being by the Lords in Parliament adjudged to be prejudicial to the King and in Derogation of his Laws such and the like artifices and devices being so much disliked by the Commons in Parliament in the 39th yeer of the Raign of King Henry the sixth as they complained by their Petition to the King Lords that VValter Clerke one of their Members a Burges for the Town of Chippenham in the County of VVilts had been outlawed and put in Prison and prayed that by the assent of the King and Lords he might be released and their Member set at Liberty Or that which King Henry the eighth did in the Case of Trewynnard a Burgess of Parliament imprisoned upon an Utlary after Judgment in delivering him by his Writ of Priviledge which upon an Action afterwards brought against the Executors of the Sheriff and a Demurrer was resolved by the Judges to be legal And therefore Philip late Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery Lord Chamberlain of his late Majesties Houshold should not be blamed for causing in the yeer of our Lord one thousand six hundred thirty and seaven one Isaac VValter to
out of his place for Bribery and Extortion it was in the Sentence or Judgment given against him said that Sacramentum Domini Regis quod erga Populum habuit custodiendum âregit maliciose false Rebelliter quantum in ipso fuit he had falsly malitiously and traiterously as much as in him lay broke or violated the Kings Coronation Oath which demonstrates that although he had at the same time violated his own Oath made unto the King when he was admitted into his Office or Place yet his fault was the greater in breaking the Kings Oath and that part of his Justice with which he was trusted For the Grants of the Judges Places by the King durante bene placito or quamdiu se bene gesserint during the Kings pleasure or as long as they do wel behave themselves the Kings Commissions of Oyer Terminer Et Gaola deliberanda of Gaol Delivery and to hear and determine Causes in their Circuits their Oathes besides their Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy taken at their admittance into their Places prescribed and directed in the 18th year of the reign of King Edward the third and administred by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keepers of the Great Seal of England for the time being That they the King and his People in the Office of Justice shall not counsel or assent to any thing that may turn unto his damage shall take no Fee or Robes of any but the King himself nor execute any Letters from him contrary to the Law but certifie him and his Councel thereof and shal procure the profit of the King and his Crown in all things that they may reasonably do the same in an Act of Parliament made in the 20th year of the Reign of that King they are expresly mentioned to be Deputed by the King to do Law and Right according to the usage of the Realm the Kings Writs directed unto them stiling them no otherwise then Justitiariis suis and those Courts the Kings Courts the acknowledgment of the Judges themselves in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and their readiness to obey all her lawful commands in the Case of Cavendish and that of Sir Edward Coke that the Judges are of the Kings Councel for proceedings in course of Justice their assisting the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England upon request or sending for some of them out of their own Courts into the Chancery their attending upon the King in his House of Peers in Parliament to assist and advise in matters of Law there debated when required but not with any power of Vote or decisive Judgment their often meetings out of their Courts altogether upon any of the Kings commands or references in causes difficult by Petition or Appeal to the King and their Opinions humbly certified thereupon and attending upon the King and his Councel upon matters doubtful wherein the ayde and advice of the Regal Authority was required and whether their Patents or Commissions be durante bene placito or quam diu se bene gesserint during the Kings pleasure or as long as they shall well behave themselves are void per demise le Roy by the death of the King that granted their Patents or Commissions and to be renewed at the pleasure of his Successor may abundantly evidence that they may not claim or justly be beleived to be independant Soveraign absolute or without an Appeal to their King and Soveraign who granteth amongst many other Offices in the said Courts the Office and Place of Warden of the Fleet by the Name of the Keeper of the Kings Pallace at Westminster aad the Office thereby to attend by him or his Deputy the Courts of Chancery Common-Pleas and Exchequer and keep in safe Custody the Prisoners committed by them when all the Writs and Process of those Courts are issued under his Name and Seal and all but the Chancery which are honoured by his own Teste are under the several Testes or Subscriptions as the Law intendeth of the Chief Justices or Judges thereof together with the Exemplifications of Fines Recoveries Verdicts and other Records in the Court of Common-Pleas and the Court of Kings-Bench and in their several and distinct Jurisdictions are subjected unto and dependant upon the Regal Authority Crown and Dignity And cannot be otherwise understood to be when our Kings have sometimes fined Judges for Extortion or Bribery as King Edward the first did Sir Ralph de Hengham and diverse other Judges in the 16th year of his Reign when the Judges in the âaid Courts cannot ex officio pardon or discharge a fine or punishment imposed or inflicted by them upon Offenders nor without his Writ of Error amend or correct Errors committed by themselves after the Term ended wherein they were committed are if they exceed their bounds subject by his Writ punishment of Praemunire to a forfeiture of all their Lands Goods Estate of their Lands in Fee-Simple or for Life to have their Bodies imprisoned at the will of the King to be out of his Protection and when he as he pleaseth commandeth the Rolls and Records of the Courts of Chancery Kings-Bench and Common-Pleas to be brought into his Treasury or the Tower of London for safety adjourneth those Courts upon occasion of Pestilence or other reason of State or Warre as King Edward the first did to York where they continued for some years after that the Judges are by Office of Court to stay surcease in many things where they do perceive the King to be concerned either in point of profit or other concernment untill they have advised with the Kings Serjeants or Councel learned in the Law when the Writs of Prohibition frequently granted by the Court of Common-Pleas or Kings-Bench in his name do signifie that he hath haute Justice power and authority over those and the inferior Courts of Justice and by his Supreme Authority doth by his Legal Rescripts and Mandates issuing out of his High Court of Chancery upon any defects in his Subordinate Courts for want of power and authority consonant or agreeable to the rules of right reason and equity moderate the rigors of his Laws correct Errors and provide fitting remedies for all manner of Contingencies or Disorders happening in the course execution or manage of his Laws or Justice testified by his Injunctions out of the Chancery to stay the rigors and proceedings in the Courts of Common-Law Commissions of Trail Baston more rightly ottroy le Baston granted by King Edward the first to inquire of and punish misdemeanours riots extortions c. which the Courts of Justice then in being had cognisance of might have upon complaint punished redressed many other Commissions of that kind made out by that other of our Kings with Commissions of Assise Association cum multis aliis or the like the Writs of Rege in consulto
and of great antiquity and authority in our Laws and very well deserving the respect is paid unto it being but a Collection of Writs out of the publick Records made and granted under the Kings Great Seal warranted either by the Common-Law or grounded upon some Acts of Parliament Protections have been granted under the Great Seal of England with a Supersedeas of all Actions and Suits against them in the mean time unto some that were sent into Forraign Parts or but into the Marches of Scotland or Wales or in Comitativa retinue of some Lord or Person of Honor employed thither in the Kings Service or unto such probably as were none of the Kings Servants in Ordinary or Domestick but as more fit persons were only sent as appeareth by the Writs upon some special and not like to be long lasting occasions with an exception only of certain Actions and Cases as in Writs of Dower for which Sir Edward Coke giveth us the Reason because the Demandant may have nothing else to live upon in Quare Impedits Quaere non Admisits or Assizes of Darrein Presentment for the danger of a lapse for not presenting within six months in Assizes of Novel Disseisin to restore the Demandant to his Freehold wrongfully entred upon and not seldom gave their Protections quia moraturus unto some Workmen Engineers or others imployed in the Fortification of some Castles or Fortress sometimes but as far as the Marches of Wales with a command that if they were incarcerati or imprisoned they should be forthwith released and at other times upon his Protections granted quia profecturus revoked his Protections because the party desiring to be protected did not go as he pretended upon the Kings message or business or having finished the Kings business imployed himself upon his own and upon better information that he did continue his imployment in his service revive it again sometimes sent his Writ to the Justices not to allow his Protection because the party protected did not go about the business upon which he was imployed and at other times sent his Writ to the Sheriffs of London to certifie him whether the party protected for a year did go in obsequium suum versus partes transmarinas in Comitativa c. upon the Kings business in the company and attendance of A. B. possibly some Envoy which makes it probable that the party protected was rather some Stranger than any of the Kings Servants and more likely to be in the cognisance of the Sheriffs of London than of the King or any of the Officers of his honourable Houshold as may appear by the subsequent words of the Writ which were an in Civitate nostra London moretur propriis negotiis suis intendendo whether he remain in the City and followeth his own business And not only granted such Protections but as was in those times held also to be necessary and convenient added a clause de non moleâtando of not troubling the party whilst he was thus imployed in his service homines terras c. his Lands Servants c. except or in regard of any of the aforesaid Pleas which were usually mentioned in the said Writ of Protection And if it were directed to the Sheriffs of London a clause by a rule of the Register was to be inserted dum tamen idem so as the protected person probably imployed in the victualing of a Town or Fort do satisfie his Creditors for Victuals bought of them And where the Protections appeared to be granted after the commencement of the Action did sometimes revoke them but if it were for any that went in a Voyage that the King himself did or other Voyages Royal or on the Kings Messages for the business of the Realm it was to be allowed and not revoked and the Kings Protections in that or any other nature had the favour and allowance of divers Acts of Parliament either in the case of such as were not their Servants or otherwise and had such respect given unto them by the Law and the Reverend Judges in Bractons time as he saith Cum breve Domini Regis non in se contineat veritatem in hoc sibi caveat Cancellarius if the matter be not true the Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England is to answer for it and quando quis Essoniaverit de malo veniendi quia in servitio Domini Regis admitti debet Essonium allocari dies dari dum tamen warrantum ad manum habet cum de voluntate Domini Regis non sit disputandum And King Edward the third did in the 33th year of his Reign by an Act of Parliament de Protectionibus concerning the repealing of Protections unduly granted by his Writ directed to all his true and faithfull Subjects now printed amongst the Statutes and Acts of Parliament and allowed the force and effect of an Act of Parliament as many other of the Kings Mandates Precepts or Writs antiently were declare that for as much as many did purchase his Protections falsly affirming that they were out of the Realm or within the four Seas in his service did provide That if their Adversaries would except or averre that they were within the four Seas and out of the Kings service in a place certain so that they might have well come and if it be proved against the Defândant it should be a default and if such Protection be on the Plaintiffs behalf he should lose his Writ and be amerced unto the King which can signifie no less then that a Protection granted where the party is really and truly in the Kings service should not be disallowed or refused which the Commons of England were used so little to disgust as that in the 47th year of the Reign of that King they did in Parliament only Petition that any having a Protection for serving in the Wars and do thereof fail by one month to the deceipt of the Kings people such Protection to be void To which the King only answered Let the party grieved come into the Chancery and he shall have remedy The Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King Richard the second ordained that no Protection with a clause of Volumus our will and pleasure is that he be not disturbed with any Pleas or Process except Pleas of Dower Quare Impedit Assise of Novel Disseisin last Presentation and Attaint and Pleas or Actions brought before the Justices Itinerant shall be allowed where the Action is for Victuals taken or bought upon the Voyage or Service whereof the Protection maketh mention nor also in Pleas of Trespass or of other Contract made before the date of the said Protection The Statute of the 13th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King which was made for that many people as well such as be not able to be retained in War for in those dayes divers of the Nobility and Gentry and
of King Henry the sixth the Commons in Parliament were so unwilling that their own concernments should hinder any of the Kings affairs as they did petition him That John Lord Talbot purposing to serve the King in his Warrs in France a Protection with the Clausa volumus might be granted unto him for a year and that by Parliament it might be ordained that it it be without the exception of Novel disseisin and to be put under the Great Seal of England with other Immunities whilst he be so in the Kings service which the King granted Provided that the said John Lord Talbot and Margaret his Wife Edward Earl of Dorset and others named should not enter upon any Lands whereof James Lord Barkly and Sir William Barkley his son were seised the first day of that Parliament or bring any Action concerning the same And so little desired the heretofore too powerfull Clergie of England to extend their power where they legally and inoffensively might do it CHAP. XIII That the Clergy of England in the height of their Pride and Superlative Priviledges Encouragements and Protection by the Papal over-grown Authority did in many cases lay aside their Thunderbolts and power of Excommunications appeals to the Pope and obtaining his Interdictions of Kingdomes Churches and Parishes and take the milder modest and more reverential way of petitioning our Kings in Parliaments rather than turn the rigors of their Canon or Ecclesiastical Laws or of the Laws of England against any of the Kings Officers or Servants AS they did in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the third although by the Statute made in the 28th year of the Reign of King Edward the first making some Actions and Injuries which they then complained of to be Felony they might without their petitioning in Parliament have had ample and easie remedies petition the King in Parliament against some grievances and oppressions done by some of the Kings Servants to people of holy Church by his Purveyors and Servants amongst which were the abuses done by his Purveyors in taking the Corn Hay Beasts Carriage and other goods of the Arch-bishops Bishops Parsons and Vicars without the agreement and good will of the Owners and did thereupon obtain the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England which in the Parliament Roll is called a Statute and is as an Act of Parliament printed among the Acts of Parliament did declare That he took them and their possessions into the especial Protection of him and his Heirs and Successors and that they should not be any more so charged nor to receive into their houses Guests nor Sojourners of Scotland nor of other Countreys nor the Horses nor Dogs Faulcons nor other Hawks of the Kings or others against their will saving to the King the services due of right from them which owe to the King the same services to sustain and receive Dogs Horses or Hawks In a Parliamant in the first year of the Reign of King Richard the second although divers Laws in force had provided them remedies of course which needed no petitioning they did petition the King That they were upon every temporal suggestion arrestâd into the Marshalsea and paid for their discharge 6 s. 8 d. where a Layman payeth only 4 s. unto which the King did answer Let the party grieved complain to the Steward of the household and they shall have remedy And did in that but follow the patterns of Loyalty Prudence and self preservation cut out and left unto all true hearted Englishmen by their worthy and pious Ancestors and Predecessors who when the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service which obliged all the Nobility and many thousands of the best part of the Gentry to follow their Prince to his Warrs abroad or defend him and his honour at home did in their duty to him and the care of their own estates and concernments with their numerous well-wishing and dutifull Tenants attending them follow him into the Warrs and Voyages Royal and remained there by the space of forty dayes at their own charges and afterwards as long as they lasted at the the Kings which must needs be a great obstruction to many mens Action or the recovery of their Debts or Rights and much better understand that universal Axiom and Rule of the Laws of Nature Necessity and Nations then the late ill advised Lord Mayor and some Citizens of London did who in the late dreadfull fire in the year of our Lord 1666. did to save the pulling down of a few houses to prevent the fury of a most dire and dismal fire and not a seventh part of their goods did see but too late the necessity of pulling down some houses and when they might have endeavoured it would allow it to be warrantable by the Lord Mayors order but not the Kings and in that fond dispute and his Timidity most imprudently suffer and give way to the burning down of many thousand houses and converting into ashes almost all that once great and flourishing City that privata cedere debent publicis every mans private affairs were to be laid aside and give place to the publick being the best way of self preservation And did not as they would do now rush upon Arrest or Imprison either the Kings Servants or such as were imployed by him or unto whom he had granted his Writs of Protection without asking leave of him but with a modesty and reverence becoming Subjects plicate him for a Revocation or if they did not or could not purchase it that way did sometimes become Petitioners in Parliament for some regulations in Protections granted upon some special and temporary imployments to such as were not his Servants in ordinary not for a total abolition or to take away that part of the Kings Prerogative in order to the Government and their own well being the answers whereunto shewed as much care in the King and his Councel as might be to give them content and satisfaction and at the same time not to depart from or lessen the Rights of the Crown more than was meerly necessary or in grace or savour for that particular time occasion or grievance to be granted or remitted unto them And no less carefull were the Judges in former ages in their delegated Courts and proceedings in Justice to pay their respects to the service of the King and likewise to his Servants or any other imployed therein CHAP. XIV That the Judges in former times did in their Courts and proceedings of Law and Justice manifest their unwillingness to give or permit any obstruction to the service of the King and Weal Publique WHen Bracton declares the Laws and Usage of the Kingdome to be in the Reign of King Henry the third and King Edward the first that Warrantizatur Essonium multipliciter quandoque per breve Domini Regis ubi non est necessitas jurare cum Dominus Rex hoc testatur per literas suas quod
a Caesare constituti qui sine provocatione cognoscebant the Judges appointed by the Emperour to hear and determine without appeal matters concerning their Lands and Territories in the House of Peers in Parliament being the highest Court of the Kingdome of England none were there admitted or did administer Justice nisi qui proximi essent a Rege ipsique arctioris fidei homagii vinculo conjuncti but such as were near unto the King held of him in Capite and were therefore called Capitanei Regni as Sir Henry Spelman saith Captains of the Kingdome and Peers being obliged and bound unto him by Homage and Fealty that highest and most honourable Court of the Kingdome wherein the Judicative Power of Parliament under the King their Head and Chief resides for the lower house or Representative of the Commons are but as a Court of grand Enquest to exhibit the grievances of the Nation and the People who did choose them to represent them as their Procurators give their consent to the raising of moneys for publick occasions and benefit and the making of good Laws intended to be obeyed by them being constituted by the King their Head and Soveraign the Prince or Heir apparent Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons Arch-bishops Bishops and some of the greater Abbots and Pryors holding their Lands and Possessions of the King in Capite until they were dissolved the Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the great Seal of England Lord President of the Kings Councel Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Lord Admiral Lord Chamberlain of England and of the Houshold Grand Master or Steward of the Kings house and the Kings Chief Secretary though no Barons assisted by the Learned and Reverend Judges of the Law and Courts of Justice at Westminster Hall who have no vote Masters of Chancery Clark of the Crown and Clark of that more Eminent part of the Parliament sitting in their several and distinct places according to their qualities and degrees upon benches or woolsacks covered with red cloth before the Kings Throne or Chair of Estate attended by the Kings Senior Gentleman Usher of the Presence Chamber called the black Rod to whom for or by reason of his attendance upon that honourable Assembly is and hath been antiently allowed annexed for his better support the little Park of Windsor with an house or lodge thereunto belonging of a good yearly value Serjeants at Arms Clarks of that higher house of Parliament as the members reverencing taking care for their Head and Soveraign the Only under God Protector of themselves and all their worldly concernments laws and liberties in which high and honourable Assembly the Archbishops and Bishops do enjoy the priviledge and honour of being present by reason of their Baronies which howsoever given in Frank Almoigne and as Elemosinary are holden in capite debent interesse judiciis curiae regis cum Baronibus are not to be absent saith the constitution or Act of Parliament made at Clarendon by K. Henry the second and that honourable Tenure being Servitium Militare a tye of duty and service to them as well as to the other Baronage any neglect therein was so penal unto them as the Lords in Parliament saith William Fitz Stephen cited by the learned Selden did in the Reign of King Henry the Second notwithstanding that Arch-bishops plea and defence wherefore he did not come to that great Councel or Parliament when he was commanded condemn the Ruffling and domineering Arch-bishop Tho. Becket in a great sum of money the forfeiture of all his moveable goods and to be at the Kings mercy guilty of high Treason for not coming to that high Court when he was cited and the reason given of that judgement for that ex reverentia Regiae Majestatis ex astrictione ligii homagii quod Domino Regi fecerat ex fidelitate observantia terreni honoris quemei Juraverat for that in the reverence and respect which he ought to have shewed to the Majesty of the King and by his homage made unto him and his Oath of Fealty sworn to observe and defend his Honour he ought to have come but did not and a Fine was afterwards likewise obout the Reign of King Edward the second imposed upon the Lord Bello-monte or Beaumont for not attending when he was summoned ad Consulendum Regi to give the King his Advice or Councel And certainly those great and many singular privileges and immunities given by our Kings the Fountains and Establishers of honours and the Offices and Imployments about their Sacred Persons appurtenant unto that noble and very Antient Degree and Titles of Episcopacy may easily invite the order of Bishops not to think it to be a disparagement to their Hierarchy when the dignity Royal of our Kings do as the Roman Emperours since the time of Constantine the Great necessarily require by turns or sometimes in every year the attendance of the Bishops in their Courts or Palaces and they are to be a la Suite du Roy pour honorer sa Majeste to be near the King for the honour of his Majesty when the King is the Guardian and Head of the Church and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury his Apocrisiarius which was an antient Office and Title of the Bishops afterwards appropriate to the Arch-bishop or Metropolitan who was in Palatio pro Ecclesiasticis negotiis excubare to oversee and take care of the Affairs of the Church in the Kings Court or Palace Capellanus Regis dictus omnibus praefuit negotiis ministris ecclesiae was stiled the Kings Chaplain presided and was under the King superintendent as to Ecclesiastical Affairs over all the business and Ministers of the Church and Chappel and in those things quae ad divinum Cultum in principiâ aula pertinent precipua semper fuit cura atque sollicitudo Archiepiscopi which appertained to Gods worship in the Kings Palace the chief care and business thereof in the duties of Religion and holy Rites belongeth unto him and is in that particular but as the Kings special Chaplain not as Mathew Parker a learned and worthy Archbishop of that See in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the Papal inflations were out of fashion would make the reason of those privileges to be because the Kings and Queens of Enggland were ejus speciales atque domesticos Parochianos his more especial Parishioners and the whole Kingdome howsoever divided into distinct Diocesses was but as one Parish though he could not be ignorant that the Arch-bishop of York and his Suffragan Bishops in one and the same Kingdome were none of his Parish nor was as Doctor Peter Heylin a right learned and dutiful Son of the Church of England by antient privilege of the See of Canterbury supposeth him to be Ordinary of the Court of his Majesties houshold being reckoned to be his Parishioners or of his Peculiar wheresoever the same shall be the Chancellor
many great and high priviledges as not to be examined in an action of debt upon account but their Attorneys are permitted to be examined upon Oath for them not to be amerced or taxed but by their Peers secundum modum delicti according to the nature of their offence Et hoc per Barones de Scaccario vel coram ipso Rege and in such cases before only the Barons of the Exchequer or before the King himself if a Parkership be granted to an Earl without words to make a deputy he may do it by his Servants if a Duke Earle or any other of the Baronage do chase or hunt in any of the Kings Parkes the law for conveniency and in respect of his dignity will permit him so many attendants as shall be requisite to the dignity of his estate are not to be summoned to a Court Leet or Shire Reeves Turn or take their Oathes of Allegiance as all other Males above the age of 12 are to do neither they nor their Wives are where they cast an Esseine to make Oath as those which are under the degree of Barons ought to do of the truth of the cause alledged for their Essoine but are only to find pledges and if upon that Essoine allowed a default be made at the day appointed amertiandi sunt Plegii the pledges but not the Earles or Barons are to be amerced are exempted by the Seatute of the 5 th of Eliz. cap. 1. from taking the Oath of Supremacy for that the Queen as that Statute saith was well assured of the Faith of the Temporal Lords shall have the benefit of their Clergy in all cases but Murder and Poysoning are not to be put to the Rack or tortured nor to suffer death even in cases of Treason by the shamefull death of Hanging Drawing and affixing their Heads and Quarters in some publick places or as at Naples they execute common persons for such most execrable offences by beheading them and putting their Heads upon the Market-place and hanging afterwards the naked Corps in some pubblick place by one of their Toes but are by the favour and warrant of the King only beheaded and their bodies with their heads laid by permitted to be decently buried Shall not be tryed by any Ecclesiastical Courts but per Pares by their Peers for Non-conformity to Common-Prayer shall have Chaplains according to their several degrees and limitations of number who may hold two Benefices with cure When the Sheriff of a County is commanded to raise the posse comitatus the power of a County he is not to command the personal service of the Baronage or Nobility a Baron or a Noble man is not to pray that a Coroner may receive his accusation or to prove and approve his accusation or appeal in every point or to be disabled for want thereof When the King by Writ of Summons to Parliament Scire Facias or his Letters missive shall send for any of the Arch-bishops Bishops Earls or Barons to appear before him or give their attendance they may in their going or returning kill a Deer or two in any of his Forrests Chases and Parkes and carry them away a Capias ad satisfaciend lieth not against a Peer or Baron of England a Baron shall not be impannelled of a common Jury although it be for the service of the Country no Attachment for a contempt in not appearing or answering in Chancery lyeth against them their Lands parcel of their Earldoms Baronies or Honors being not to be contributary to the wages of Knights of the Shire or County wherein those Lands do lie are in cases of Felony or Treason to be tryed only by their Peers and their Wives are by a Statute made in the 20 th year of King Henry the 6 th to enjoy the like priviledge upon the Surety of the Peace prayed against a Baron he is not to be arrested by warrant from a Justice and upon a Supplicavit out of the Chancery shall give no surety but promise only upon his Honor A Defendant shall not have a day of Grace given him against a Lord of Parliament because he is supposed to attend the affairs of the publick a Baron shall not answer upon Oath to a Bill in Chancery or Equity but upon protestation of Honor nor in a verdict upon a Tryal by Peers for saith Crompton the Law makes so much account of the word of a Peer of the Realm when he speaks upon his honor though it be in Case or upon Tryal for life as it shall be believed a Baron shall not have a writ of Subpaena directed unto him but a Letter under the Hand and Seal of the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England is not to be arrested or outlawed for Debt or any other personal action not criminal there being two Reasons saith our Law why the person of a Lord should not be arrested or outlawed for Debt or Trespass the one in respect of his dignity and the other in respect that the law presumes that they have sufficient lands and tenements by which they may be distreined in the Long Writ called the Prerogative Writ issuing out of the Exchequer to distreine the lands and goods of the Kings debtors or in default thereof to attach their bodies there is an express exception of Magnatum dominorum dominarum of the Nobility and their Ladies and the Office of Count or Earl was of great trust and confidence for two purposes the first ad consulendum Regi tempore pacis to councel assist and advise the King for the Weale publick in time of peace and the second ad defendendum Regem patriam tempore belli to defend their King and Country in time of War and by their power prowess and valour guard the Realm both which are the proper business of the Barons and the other Nobility as well as the Earls and in action of Debt Detinue or Trespass or in any other action reall or personal brought or commenced for or against any of the Nobility two Knights shall be impannelled on the Jury with other men of worth and by a late necessary and honorable care of the late Lord Chancellor and Master of the Rolls no Original Writ against any of the Nobility in a subsequent Term is permitted to be antedated or to take benefit of a precedent as is now commonly used against such as are not of the Peerage or Nobility Mr. Selden giving us the Rule that tenere de Rege in Capite per Baroniam to hold of the King in Capite and to have lands holden by Barony and to be a Baron are one and the same thing and Synonymies and not a few of our antient Writers and Memorialls have understood the word Baronia to signifie an Earldom or the lands appertaining thereunto which may make it to be more then conjectural that it
with all the liberties and free customes to the said honour appertaining that of later granted to the Earl of Pembroke by King Edward the 6 th of the Earldome of Pembroke cum omnibus singulis praeheminentiis honori Comitis pertinentibus with all preheminencies and honors belonging to the honour and dignity of an Earl Et habere sedem locum vocem as all the grants and Creations of the later Earles do now allow and import in Parliamentis publicis Comitiis Consiliis nostrorum haeredum successorum infra regnum Angliis inter alios Comites and to have place vote or suffrage in the Parliaments or Councells of the King his heirs or successors amongst the Earles within the Kingdome of England nec non uti gandere omnibus singulis Juribus privilegiis praeheminentiis immunitatibus statui comitis in omnibus rite de I're pertinentibus quibus caeteri comites Regni Angliae ante haec tempora melius honorificentius quietius liberius usi gravisi sunt as likewise to use and enjoy all and singular rights priviledges immunities and preheminencies to the degree and state of an Earl in every thing rightly and by law appertaining as other Earles of the Kingdome of England best most honourably and freely have used and enjoyed all who the aforesaid antient honorable priviledges preheminencies and immunities granted and allowed the Nobility and Baronage of England those Sons and Generations of merit adorned by their ancestors vertue aswell as their own and the honors which their Soveraigns have imparted unto them have been ratified by our Magna Charta so very often confirmed by several Acts of Parliament and the Petition of Right in and by which the properties and liberties of all the people of England are upheld and supported and therefore the honors and dignities being personal Officiary or relating to their service and attendance upon the throne and Majesty Royal and conducing to the Honor Welfare and safety of the King and his people King Henry the 6 th may be thought to have been of the same opinion when the Commons in Parliament having in the 29 th year of his raign Petitioned him that the Duke of Sommerset Dutchess of Suffolk and others may be put from about his person he consented that all should depart unless they be Lords whom he could not spare from his person And in Askes Rebellion in Yorkshire in the latter end of the raigne of King Henry the 8 th the Commons complained that the King was not although he had many about him of great Nobility served or attended with Noble or worthy men And also the Lords Spiritual assembled in Parliament in the second year of the raigne of King Charles the Martyr when they Petitioned the King against the Inconveniences of some English mens being created Earles Viscounts and Barons of Scotland or Ireland that had neither residence nor estates in those Kingdomes did amongst other things alledge that it was a Shame to nobility that such persons dignified with the titles of Barons Viscounts c should be exposed and obnoxious to arrests they being in the view of the law no more then meer Plebejans and prayed that his Majesty would take some Course to prevent the prejudice and disparagement of the Peers and Nobility of this Kingdome who being more peculiarly under the protection of their Soveraigne in the enjoyment of their priviledges have upon any invasion thereof a more special addresse unto him for the Conservation thereof as in the case of the Earl of Northampton the twentieth day of June in the 13 th year of the Raign of King Charles the Martyr against Edmond Cooper a Serjeant at Mace in London and William Elliot for arresting of him they were by the Lord Chamberlains warrant apprehended and committed to the Marshall and not discharged but by warrant of the Lord Chamberlain bearing date the third day of July next following and needs not seem unusual strange or irrational unto any who shall but observe and consult the liberties priviledges immunities and praeheminencies granted and permitted unto the Nobility of many other Nations and Countries aswell now as very antiently by their Municipal and reasonable customes and the civil or Caesarean laws CHAP. XVI That many the like priviledges and praeheminences are and have been antiently by the Civil and Caesarian laws and the Municipall Laws and reasonable Customes of many other Nations granted and allowed to the nobility thereof WHen as the Hebrews who thought themselves the most antient wise and priviledged of the Sonnes of men had their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã tribuum principes Capita qui cum Rege sedentes partim consilia mibant partim Jus reddebant Princes of the Tribes under the King were the chief Magistrates and heads of the people attended the King sate with him as his Councel and assisted him in the making of laws of which the book of God giveth plentiful evidences Solomon had his Princes some of whom were set over his household Ahab had Princes of his Provinces Jehoram King of Israel leaned upon the hand of a Lord that belonged unto him And our Saviour Christ alludeth to the Princes of Israel the Elders and Judges of the people when he saith his twelve Apostles should after the Consummation of the world sit and Judge the twelve Tribes of Israel amongst the Graecians the nobility derived their honors from their Kings and Princes and by the lawes of Solon and the ten Tables were alwaies distinguished from the Common people and had the greatest honours and authorities and in all other Nations who live under Monarchs have been favoured and endowed therewith the old Roman Nobility refused to marry with the Ignoble as those of Denmark and Germany do now which our English descended from the later did so much approve of as they accompted it to be a disparagement to all the rest of the Family and Kindred to marry with Citizens or people of mean Extractions Julius Caesar when he feasted the Patricii or Nobility and the common people entertained the Nobility in one part of his Palace and the Common people in another and not denied some part of it even in the Venetian and Dutch Republick as amongst many other not here ennumerated Nobilis minus suât puniendi quam ignobilis Noble men are not to be so severely punished as ignoble Nobiles propter debitum Civile vel ex causa aeris alieni non debent realiter citari vel in Carcerem duci are not for debts or moneys owing to be arrested or imprisoned propter furtum vel aliud crimen suspendio dignum laquei supplicio non sunt plectendi are not for Theft or any other Crime to be hanged and that priviledge so much allowed and insisted upon in the Republick or Commommon wealth of Genoar in the height of their envy or dislike of their Nobility as they did about the
suos ibidem et ad assignand ' Justic ' per Commissionem et ad Error ' corrigend per ipsum Episco pum vel alios Justiciar suos tam ad sectam Domini Episcopi quam aliorum praediâtus Willielmus replicavit quod non esset consonum rationi se ipsum de facto prosecutione proprijs fore Judicem cum proprie ad Regiam Majestatem in omnibus Causis ortis inter subditos Jurisdictio pertinet dinoscere et licet ad aliquam Personam per privilegium speciale de causa cognoscere indultum fuit si substitutus in exhibitione Justitiae defecerit Errorem per superiorem et non per substitut ' corrigi debet et super hoc dati sunt dies de termino in terminum To which he pleaded that no Writs were delivered to him at Durham and to that which was delivered unto him at Waltham he had returned that he is Count Palatine and Lord of the Royalty of the Lands called the Bishoprick of Durham and hath all the Rights and Regalities which do belong unto a Count Palatine and that Royalty there to be exercised by him and his Ministers and Justices that is to say hath a Coroner Chancellor and Court of Chancery and that the Kings Officers do not in any thing intermeddle therein and that the said Bishop as Count Palatine hath there likewise his Court and Justices of Common-Pleas as well real as personal and power to assign by Commission Justices to correct and reverse Errors committed by him or any of his Justices as well at his own Suit as others Unto which the said William replyed That it was not reason that he should be Judge of his own Actions when as properly it belonged to the Majesty of a King to determine of all Causes betwixt his Subjects And although he in favour granted to some Person a special priviledge to hear and determine Causes yet if any substituted by him do fail in the distribution of Justice the Errors shall be corrected by the Superior and not by the Substitutes whereupon further days were given from Term to Term. Nor was the Duties of Subjects so worn out but that so much respect was in those better Times given to our Kings Royal Protections granted to such as were not employed by them as the Laws and reasonable Customs oâ England did allow the protected Persons in their Lands and Estates to bring their Actions against the Infringers or Disturbers thereof as in the Case of Roger de Limecote against the Sheriff of Liecester in the first year of the Reign of King Richard the First for disseising him of two Knights Fees Nicholas Talbot against William Prior of Dunstar in the eight and thirtieth year of the Reign of King Edward the Third of Walter Warr against Gervase Wretchey and John Parkey in the same year and of many others in the said Kings Reign and no Pleas in Bar or alledging Illegality put into the same but in others some collateral Pleas and Defences made by Releases or the like For those Lovers of their Countrey and honor of their Kings did not think as some would fondly and untruly assert that all the Royal Protections granted by them had at the first no better an Original or Foundation than an Imitation of the many Protections and Priviledges granted by our Kings and Princes to Bishops Monasteries and Religious Houses did not believe that our Kings could not respite for a while the payment of moneys due unto any of their Subjects or do as much as amounted to it when King Edward the Third in his Wars with France and great want of Moneys did about the thirteenth year of his Reign revoke divers Assignations for the payment of Moneys due unto private and particular persons until he should be better enabled to pay them And it was about the twelfth Year of the Reign of King James in the Grand Case of Boltons Complaint against the Lord Chancellor Ellesmeere adjudged in Parliament That upon a Bill called A Bill of Conformity exhibited in Chancery by a Debtor against his Creditors for not accepting of his Offer of as much satisfaction as he was able to give them and for refusing thereupon to permit him to enjoy his liberty the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England might by Injunctions prohibit and stay all Suits at the Common Law commenced by him or any such refractory Creditors For our Courts of Chancery Kings-Bench Common-Pleas and Exchequer have in their several subordinate Authorities not seldom mitigated and reduced the high and unreasonable Fines incertain demanded by divers Lords of Manors of their Copy-hold Tenants for their Admissions unto a more reasonable Rate of two years improved Value and enforced them to accept it And Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon Magna Charta would not bring into the meaning of the Clause of Nulli negabimus vel differemus Justiciam That the King would not deny or delay Justice such Protections as do appear in the Register and are warranted by the Books of Law And although in the eighth year of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth it was in transitu and by the way said by Cottesmore a Judge in the Case concerning the Priviledges of the University of Oxford That the King cannot grant that a man shall not Implead or have any Action against another Yet it was at the same time declared to be Law and right Reason by Babington a Judge That to a Lord of a Manor Conusance of all Trespasses done within his Lordship may be granted by the King and that a Plaintiff shall be bound to bring his Action accordingly and that in that Case the King hath not fore-closed him of his Action so as our Novelists and such as invent all the Oppositions they can against the just and legal Authority of their Sovereigns may do better to acknowledge that howsoever it was the opinion of some of the Judges in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth That if any should Arrest a man by the Kings Command when all men Arrested are so by the Authority of the King and his Writs or Process an Action of False Imprisonment might be brought against him that obeyed the Kings Command although it was done in the presence of the King Yet the whole Tenor and Meaning of that Case and that sudden Opinion arguendo or by way of instance deliver'd thereupon was no more but that such a Command ought to be attended with some Specialty or cause shewed And so little did the Judges of the Court of Kings-Bench in Trinity Term in the ninth year of the Reign of King Henry the Fifth intend or think it fit to subject to the humor of any froward or undutiful person the important Affairs and Service of the King As William Reedhead and Nicholas Hobbesson Purveyors for the King having taken forty Quarters of Malt for the Kings use for the Victualling
duly observed that the Phisitians in London should have a Priviledge not to keep Watch or Ward nor to be chosen or bear the Office of Constable or to bear any Office in the City of London or Suburbs and any such Election to be void in all which the Weal Publick was not a little concerned And the Barber Chirurgions are likewise by an Act of Parliament made in the same Parliament exempt from bearing of Armour or to be put in any Watches or Enquests which the Weal Publick without that Priviledge could not otherwise have dispensed with Could Cromwell that accomplishment of wickedness and Hypocrisie and Mr. Shepheard whom he had hired to clip and misuse our Laws upon a pretence of reformation of them allow in their modell thereof that the Servants of his miscalled Protectorship should not be compelled to serve upon Juries at Assises or Sessions or to bear the Office of a Constable or Church Warden And shall the Kings Servants that are continually imployed in the Attendance Preservation Safeây and well being of his Person and people being matters of the greatest concernment be excluded or thought not worthy of the like Could the Archbishoprick and many of the Successive Archbishops of York enjoy a liberty of Fridstoll Frithstow Frid in the Saxon signifying Peace and stol sedes Cathedrae and Stow locus Cathedra quietudinis pacis a Seat Chair or place of Peace which had this Inscription Haec sedes lapidea Freedstoll dicitur pacis Cathedra ad quam reus fugiendo perveniens omnimodam habet securitatem this Seat or Chair of Stone is called Freedstoll or the Chair of Peace to which any Offender flying is to have all manner of Refuge and Security an Immunity granted unto the Church of St. Peters in York and confirmed by King Henry the 7th in the fifth year of his Reign And there is in Glossopdale in the County of Darby a place upon a Hill or large Heath some distance from the Town yet known by the name of the Abbots Chair which probably might have been endowed with the like Immunity Or shall a Priest or person propter Privilegium Clericale in regard of his being in holy Orders not be distreined when he hath no lay Fee or upon an Attachment refuseth to find Pledges because he hath no lay Fee or hath one in the Prebend and the Ordinary nor the Sheriff although he hath a Warrant to enter the Liberty without the ordinary or Bishop and the Bishop himself cannot do it sine speciali praecepto Regis cum Canonicus adeo libere teneat prebendam suam de Ecclesia sicut ipse Episcopus Baroniam canonâci sunt quasi unum corpus per se in Ecclesia without a special Precept or Warrant from the King for that a Canon or Prebend doth as freely hold his prebendary of the Church as the Bishop doth his Barony and the Canons are and do make a Body or Corporation by themselves in the Church Doth the King grant and allow Cognisance of Pleas or Causes to so many of his Subjects within their Franchises and Liberties with Fossis and furcis power to punish or hang in Crimânal matters and shall he not have so much Cognisance of the matters and concernments of his houshold and maenial Servants as to have leave asked before they be Arrested or disturbed in his Service which is the only cause of the Priviledge which he grants and allows to his Courts of Justice and the Officers and Servants thereof Or can any man think it reasonable that the Bishop of Eây should have Cognisance of Pleas arising in his Bishoprick and the Territories thereof or the Magistrates of the City of Salisbury to have the like and supersede Actions and Pleas depending in the Court of Kings-Bench or the Lord Maior of London have and enjoy the priviledge of not having any Attachment awarded against him out of the high Court of Chancery as in the case of Sr. John Robinson Knight whilst he was Lord Mayor of London and exercised that Annual office as the Kings Lieutenant or special Servant or that Mr. John Abdy an Alderman of London in Anno Dom. 1640 being the 16th year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr should by the Judges of the Court of Kings-Bench be allowed a Priviledg not to bear the Office of a Constable in Essex where he was many times resident at his Country-house within the Leet or mannor of Sir William Hicks Knight where by the Custome of that place every inhabitant or resiant was from house to house yearly by turnes to execute that office and upon a writ granted him directed to the Lord of the Mannor or his Steward to discharge him because he being an Alderman of London ought to be there resident the greatest part of the year and if absent may be fined all the Justices of that Court delivered their opinion that he ought to be discharged bâ his priviledge as Attorneys attending in Courts of Justice are of such offices of Constablâs and other offices in the parish And although it was said that the Alderman might execute the office of Constable by deputy and his personal Attendance was not requisite by the Custome of the Mannor yet that exception was not allowed Or that Mr. Bacon A Barrester at Law of Grayes-Inn should in Trinity Term in Anno 1655. h by aforesaid Court upon view of the presidents in Francklin and Sir William Butlers Case and Bere and Jones his Case of the Midle-Temple have a priviledge allowed unto him in respect of his Barrestership and necessary attendance upon the Courts of Justice in Westminster-Hall to lay a transitory Action at Law in Middlesex when it was before laid in Northumberland and that it should not be reasonable for the King to allow his servants their aforesaid priviledges much more necessary and conducing to the weal publique May not the King as well Claim and enjoy a priviledge for his servants and their freedom from arrest without first obtaining his licence or within his virge of twelve miles compass or circumference of his Court which certainly was at the first intended by Law for more purposes then for the Jurisdiction of the Marshals or Marshalsea Court and may probably be believed to have been antiently used for an Asylum or place of peace or freedom from such kind of violences as arresting the Kings houshold servants without the Kings licence As the Universitie of Oxford doth by the grants of our Kings and their several acts of parliament in its large boundaries or precincts and the University of Cambridge the like within their Colledges Halls and Precincts for the better observation whereof in Oxford every Sheriff of the County of Oxford at his admission into his office is to take an oath that the Masters of the said Universites and their servants from Jnjuries and violences he shall keep and defend by all his Strength and power and the
Regale Necessarium OR The Legality Reason and Necessity OF THE Rights and Priviledges Justly Claimed by the Kings Servants And which ought to be allowed unto them By Fabian Philipps Seneca in Traged Octavia Act 2. Collecta vitia per tot Aetates diu In nos redundant Seculo premimur gravi Lucanus de Bello Civili lib. 9. Squalent Serpentibus Arva Durum iter ad Leges patriaeque ruentis amorem LONDON Printed for Christopher Wilkinson and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Black-Boy in Fleet-street over against St. Dunstans Church 1671. To the Illustrious and Right Honourable James Duke Marquess and Earl of Ormond one of the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councel Lord Steward of his Majesties most Honourable Houshold and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter And unto the Right Honourable Edward Earl of Manchester one of the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councel Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties most Honourable Houshold and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter My Lords WEre it not that these unhappy times have brought forth a sort of reasonless men whose humors and Phancies led by an ignorance or Interest makes them unwilling to submit to Laws and the necessary and just means and Rules of Government unless their understanding which in those quarrelling and contentious Sceptickes is little enough may be convinced and satisfied with the Reason thereof these my Labours might have seemed to be as needless as Physick for those which are in Health and to be little more than a quarrel with my own Shadow But they that hear the dayly complaints now more than ever made against the Legal and just Priviledges of the Kings Servants the affronts offered to the Majesty and Supreme Authority of the King by Arresting and Imprisoning them without leave first obteyned of the Lord Chamberlain of his most Honourable Houshold or those other great Officers therein to whom it appertayneth and by bringing of Writs of Habeas Corpus by those which have been taken and Arrested by the Kings Messengers for their contempts therein to be delivered by the subordinate Courts of Justice against the mind and Authority of the King that Commissionated them and those many disparaging contests which do arise thereupon with the unwarrantable Opinions now put to Nurse that the King cannot in such a case protect his Servants without a great delay or hindrance of the Execution of Justice that they being Outlawed may be Arrested whether he will or no And that he hath so conveyed his Justice to his Courts of Justice as he is not in the case of his Servants to intermeddle therein may I hope Apologize for my undertaking and endeavors to perswade them out of those and some other their great mistakings and Errors which may produce a neglect and slighting of Authority and many an unforeseen evil consequence In the management whereof I can call my most reserved and private thoughts to witness and they will therein I am confident acquit me that I have not built an Altar to flattery or made any design or hopes of preferment to be my guide or incitement thereunto but have done what I now present unto you only to maintain the Honour and respect which is due to our Soveraign Lord the King and his Servants casta mente manu accompanied with a principle and opinion that he deserves to be accompted the greatest of villaines that would make it his design to lessen or detract from any of the Kings Rights Prerogative and just means of Government and to be ever infamous that for any ends whatsoever would endeavor to diminish or take away any of the peoples Legal Rights Liberties and Priviledges And in that middle way and path of Truth and doing Right to all Parties have no intention to give any assistance for the defrauding or too much delaying of Creditors just debts or stopping the course of Justice in any the peoples Actions or Prosecutions of their rights or for remedies against Wrongs or Injuries done unto them by any indirect course or shelter for such as shall only pretend themselves to be the Kings Servants when they are not truly or really thereunto entituled In which my Labours if any shall undervalue the Authorities which I have brought from the Laws of Nations Customs or usage of all or the most of our Kings and Princes and the Civil Law that great repository of Reason and Prudence to fortifie my assertion of the Priviledges of the Kings Servants they may please to understand that they are principally derived from the Laws of Nations Civil Law and universal right Reason consonant and agreeable to our common Laws which have instructed and guided themselves by many a maxime and piece of right Reason which they have received from them Or shall say that the Records of this Kingdom which have been cited in Conformity thereunto are only fit to make a history but do serve for no proof as some of those of the long robe have with much Injury unto them and themselves and the Truth not long ago been pleased to say or that the old things are passed away those Antiquities are obsolete and little to be regarded Wee are now upon a new way the Law hath been much altered and changed and those evidences and venerable Monuments of Time being the vestigia and footsteps of antient Laws and Customs are not to be much respected And will adventure to vent such Doctrines or Opinions and make themselves as Gutherius a learned French Advocate complaineth guilty of the neglects of those very necessary and usefull parts of Learning and Knowledge which are to be found in the Treasuries of Time and Antiquities may upon better consideration find cause to believe that the Reason of Laws doth never Expire that the unerring Wisdom of the Almighty that Writ some Laws with his own Finger and commanded his beloved people of Israel to repeat them to their Children and after Generations to ask of the days that were past and which were before them since the day that God Created man upon the Earth and that Bildâd the Sâuhite one of Jobs Friends gave him no ill Counsel when he advised him to enquire of the former Age and prepare himself to the search of his fathers and enforceth it by a Reason that we are but of yesterday and know nothing because our days upon earth are a Shadow and the giver of all Wisdom did long after by his holy Spirit in the Prophet Jeremy enjoyn them to stand in the ways and see and ask for the old Paths that in the making of new Laws and the amending or correcting of the old The knowledge of those which have been altered repealed or laid aside is not a little necessary to the end that by the old we may see the necessity and perfection of the new and by the old how to avoid the failings which might happen in the
contrary to the Common Law of the Land and in despite of the King refused to obey it The Parliament acknowledging the aforesaid Rights and Customs of the said Clerks of the Chancery and the contempt of the King did ordain Que breif soit mandez a Maior de Londres de attacher les divz Viscontes autres quont este parties maintenours de la guerele dont ceste bille fait mention per le Corps destre devant le Roy en sa dite Chancellerie a certein jour a respondre aussibien du contempt fait a nostre Seigneur le Roy ses mandements prejudice de son Chanceller come al dit Clerk des damages trespas faites a lui That a Writ should be awarded and directed to the Mayor of London to arrest by their Bodies the said Sheriffs of London and others which were parties and maintainers of the said evil action to answer before the King in his Chancery at a certain day as well for the contempt done to the King and his Commands and prejudice of his Chancellor as also to the said Clerk for his damages and wrong sustained And that King by a Statute made in the 36 year of his Reign forbidding under severe penalties any Pourveyance to be made but for the King and Queen and their Houses and to take any such Pourveyance without ready Money there is a pain or penalty to be imposed as Sir Edward Coke upon view of the Record thereof hath observed upon the Steward Treasurer and Controller and other Officers of the Kings Houshold for not executing that Statute which need not to have been if the cognisance of the Offences therein mentioned had not by that Act been thought fit to have been left unto them And was so far from being perswaded to release the constant Attendance of the Justices of the Kings Bench as when the Commons in Parliament in the 38th year of his Reign Petitioned him That the Kings Bench might remain in some certain Place and not be removed he answered in the negative That he would not do so And where the Court Marshal was so anciently constituted for the Placita Aulae sive Regis Palatii for Pleas Actions and Controversies concerning the Servants of the Royal Family when any should happen to arise amongst them and retained in the Kings House and Attendance and the Court of Common Pleas was designed and delegated to do Justice unto all the Common People in Real and Civil Actions in certo loco a certain place assigned in the Kings House or Palace for then and long after until our Kings of England made Whitehall their Palace or Residence it is probable that the Bars Benches and Tribunals of the Courts of Chancery Kings Bench Common Pleas Exchequer and other Courts since inhabiting that great and magnificent Hall of Westminster were movable and not so fixt as they now are and allowed not to travel with the King and his Court or to follow it and the Court of Exchequer to take care of the Royal Revenue in its Income Receipts and Disbursments It cannot without some affront or violence done to Reason be imagined that our Kings who would have that Court of the Marshal to be neerer their Persons than any other of their Courts of Justice always attending and resident for the concernment properly of their Houshold and Servants and because they should not be inforced from their daily Service to pursue their Rights or seek for Justice before other Tribunals should ever intend or be willing that their Servants and necessary Attendants should as Defendants and at the suit of Strangers and such as are not the Kings Servants be haled to Prison diverted from their Service or obstructed in it when as Justice in the old more dutiful and respectful way might as cheap and with lesser trouble be had against them at the Fountain or Spring of Justice by the King himself the Alpha or beginning of it and Omega the Dernier Resort or last Appeal where his ordinary Courts of Justice fail and cannot do ir And where some of our late Kings and Queens of England not to be wanting unto the Cries and Complaints of their People for want of Justice did afterwards appoint and allow another Court in the Reigns of King Henry the seventh Henry the eighth Edward the sixth Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth called and known by the name of Curia Supplicatioâum Libellorum the Court of Petitions and Requests where those that were honoured with the Title and Offices of Judges and as Commissioners and Masters of Requests for those particular Causes and Cases were Bishops or Barons Lords Stewards of his Houshold and other Great Officers thereof Deans of the Chappel and Doctors of Law and Divinity were stiled or called Concilium Regis that Stile or Title and Masters of Requests as Synonyma's then signifying one and the same thing And a Mastership of Requests was so highly esteemed in the seventh year of the Reign of Q. Elizabeth as there was besides Walter Haddon Doctor of the Laws and Thomas Seckford Esq a Common Lawyer the Bishop of Rochester a Master of Requests and in the 22. year of her Reign Sir William Gerrard Knight Lord Chancellor of Ireland was during the time of his being in England made a Master of Requests Extra-ordinary and by the Queens Letter of Recommendation to the other Masters of Requests ordeined to sit amongst them and their Decrees were sometimes signed by the King himself with his Sign Manual and in the tenth year of King Henry the eighth divers Bills were exhibited unto Thomas Wolsey Archbishop of York Chancellor of England and Cardinal and Legate a Latere to granr Process for the Defendents appearance to answer before his Grace and others of the Kings most Honourable Council in Whitehall but at other times before and since were constrained to appear before that Council by Writ or Process of Privy Seal or a Messenger of the Kings that Court as it may be observed by the Registers and Records thereof coming to be called the Court of Requests only about the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the sixth And such care was taken by King Henry the seventh to hear and redress the Grievances and Laments of his People as in the ninth year of his Reign he assigned and enjoyned them certain months and times diligently to attend unto that business the greatest Earls and Barons having in those times been made Defendants to several Bills and Petitions many of the Learned Serjeants of the Law there pleading for their Clients and Sir Humphrey Brown Kt. one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas in the sixth year of the Reign of King Edward the sixth being made a Defendant in this Court where the Plaintiff after 12 years delays in Chancery and an Appeal from that Court unto this obtained a Decree against him and yet no Pleas and Demurrers are found to be put in
against the Legality of this Court in the Reigns of King Henry the seventh Henry the eighth Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth or since although Sir Edward Coke being unwilling to allow it to be a Court legally constituted as not founded by any Prescription or Act of Parliament hath thrown it under some scruples or objections with which the former Ages and Wisemen of this Nation thought not fit to trouble their Times and Studies that Court being not only sometimes imployed in the determining of Cases and Controversies irremedial in the delegated Courts of Justice out of the Palace Royal or by the Privy Council but concerning the Kings Domesticks or Servants in Ordinary as may be seen in the 33 year of the Reign of K. Henry the eighth in the Case of David Sissel of Witham in the County of Lincoln Plaintiff against Richard Sissel his Brother Yeoman of the Kings Robes for certain Lands lying in Stamford in the said County of Lincoln formerly dismissed by the Kings most Honourable Privy Council wherein the said David Sissel was enjoyned upon pain of Imprisonment to forbear any clamour further to be made to the Kings Grace touching the Premises In the second and third years of King Philip and Queen Mary Sir John Browne Knight one of the two Principal Secretaries to the King and Queens Majesties was a Plaintiff in that Court and in the thirteenth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Sir James Crofts Knight Comptroller of the Queens Majesties Houshold against Alexander Scoffeild for Writings and Evidences in the Defendants Custody And those great assistants Lords and Bishops Commissionated by the King as his Council or Commissioners did sometimes in that Court as in the thirtieth year of the Reign of King Henry the eighth superintend some Causes appealed aswell from the Lord Privy Seal as the Common Law and Sir John Russel Knight Lord Russel the same man or his Father being in an Act of Parliament in the thirteenth year of the Reign of King Edward the Fourth wherein he with the Archbishop of Canterbury and others were made Feoffees of certain Lands to the use and for performance of the Kings last Will and Testament stiled Master John Russel his Majesties Keeper of the Privy Seal was in that Court made a Defendant in the first year of the Reign of King Edward the sixth to a Suit Petition or Bill there depending against him although he was at that time also that Great and Ancient Officer of State called the Lord Privy Seal there having been a Custos Privati Sigilli a Keeper of the Privy Seal as early as the later end of King Edward the first or King Edward the second or the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the third about which time Fleta wrote nor was it then mentioned as any Novelty or new Office the Lord Privy Seal or Keepers of the Kings Privy Seal having ever since the eighteenth year of the Reign of King Henry the seventh if not long before until that fatal Rebellion in the later end of the Reign of that incomparable and pious Prince King Charles the Martyr successively presided and been Chief Judges in that Court which was not understood to be illegal in the twentieth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when in a Case wherein George Ashby Esq was Complainant against William Rolfe Defendant an Injunction being awarded against the Defendant not to prosecute or proceed any further at the Common Law and disobeyed by the procurement of the said William Rolfe it was ordered That Francis Whitney Esq Serjeant at Arms should apprehend and arrest all and every person which should be found to prosecute the said Defendant contrary to the said Injunction and commit them to the safe custody of the Warden of the Fleet there to remain until order be taken for their delivery by her Majesties Council of that Court by Authority whereof the said William Rolfe was apprehended and committed to the Fleet for his Contempts but afterwards in further contempt the said William Rolfe's Attorney at the Common Law prosecuting a Nisi prius before Sir Christopher Wray then Lord Chief Justice of the Queens Bench against the Complainant in Guildhall London the said Attorney was then und there presently taken out of the said Court by the said Serjeant at Arms and committed to the Fleet. Nor by Sir Henry Mountà gue Knight Earl of Manchester who being the Son of a Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench was in Legibus Angliae enutritus in praxi legum versatissimus a great and well-experienced Lawyer and from his Labour and Care therein ascended to the Honour and Degree of Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench from thence to that of Lord Treasurer of England thence to be Lord President of the Kings most Honourable Privy Council and from thence to be Lord Privy Seal and for many years after sitting as Supreme Judge and Director of the Court of Requests in the Reign of King James and King Charles the Martyr together with the four Masters of Requests his Assessors and Assistants in that Honourable and necessary Court Which Office or Place à Libellis Principis of Master of Requests having been long ago in use in the Roman Empire and those that were honoured therewith with maximorum culmine dignitatum digni men accounted worthy of the most honourable nnd eminent Imployments and that Office or Place so highly esteemed as that great and ever famous Lawyer Papinian who was stiled Juris Asylum the Sanctuary or Refuge of the Law did under the Emperor Severus enjoy the said Office to whom his Scholar or Disciple Vlpian afterwards succeeded and with our Neighbours the French summo in honore sunt are very greatly honoured quibus ab Aulâ Principis abesse non licet and so necessary as not at any time to be absent from the Court or Palace of the Prince The Masters of Requests are and have been with us so much regarded and honoured as in all Assemblies and Places they precede the Kings Learned Council at Law and take place of them and amongst other Immunities and Priviledges due unto them and to the Kings Servants are not to be enforced to undergo or take upon them any other inferior Offices or Places in the Commonwealth There being certainly as much if not a greater Reason that the King should have a Court of Requests or Equity and Conscience where any of his Servants or Petitioners are concerned as the Lord Mayor of London who is but the Kings Subordinate Governour of that City for a year should have a Court of Conscience or Requests in the City of London for his Servants or the Freemen and Citizens thereof The Rights and Conveniences of our Kings of England doing Justice to their Domestick or Houshold Servants within their Royal Palaces or Houses or the virge thereof and not remitting them to other Judicatures together
with the Duty and Respects never to be denied to Superiority in order more especially to Government being as well to be allowed unto our Kings and Princes and consistent with right Reason as it was in the more ancient times of the Empire or Rome when the Magister Officiorum or Steward of the Emperors House or Palace cui totius Palatii cura pertinuit to whom the whole care of their Houshold did appertain apud quem tam in Civilibus quà m Criminalibus causis respondere tenentur and before whom all the Servants of the Houshold were obliged to answer as well in Causes Civil as Criminal could do no less then incite and advise them so watchfully to guard the necessary and allowed Priveledges of their Servants warranted by the dictates of right Reason and our own Laws as well as the Laws and Customs of many of our neighbour Nations And therefore by an Act of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Richard the second confirmed by another in the twelfth it was ordained That those that raised horrible and false lies against the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons great Nobility and great Men of the Realm as also of the Chancellor Treasurer Clerks of the Privy Seal Stewards of the Kings House being the more special and eminent part of his Domestick Servants and those that did attend him and in ancient and more respectful Times and Ages to the Servants and Honour of Princes did wear no less a Title than Proceres Palatii Lords or Men of great eminency in the Palaces of Kings and Emperors Justices of the one Bench or the other and other great Officers of the Realm whereby debates and discords might arise betwixt the said Lords or the Lords and Commons should be taken and imprisoned until they had found him that first moved it and if they could not should be punished by the advice of the Kings Council And in the ninth year of his Reign John de Leicester one of the Clerks of the Chancery being sued in the Court of Common Pleas by the name of John de Sleford of the County of Leicester for a Debt of 24 l. 16 s. and after his Writ of Priviledge out of the Chancery which commanded the Justices of the said Court of Common Pleas to surcease any further proceeding in that Action being constrained to bring his Writ of Error to reverse a Judgment thereupon notwithstanding had against him the King pro eo quòd principale placitum loquelae praedictae ad cognitionem Cancellarii nostri nullius alterius juxta consuetudinem Cancellariae merè pertinet ex consequenti ejus accessarium ad eundem Cancellarium pertinere debet volentes Jurisdictionem Privilegium Consuetudinem hujusmodi à tam longo tempore obtenta approbata Illaesa firmiter observare in regard that the principal Plea or Suit aforesaid belonged only to the cognisance of his Chancellor and none other according to the custom of the Chancery and that by consequence the cognisance of the Accessary or any thing concerning the said principal Plea or Suit belonged to the Chancellors determination and was willing to preserve the said Jurisdiction Custom and Priviledge for so long a time continued and approved commanded the Record and Process aforesaid with all which thereunto appertained to be sent and certified into the Chancery that he might do thereupon as to Justice appertaineth In the 35 year of the Reign of King Henry the sixth the Abbot of Westminster having an Action depending in the Court of Common Pleas against one of the Yeomen of the Kings Buttery and an Essoin being cast and allowed that he was in the Kings Service the King at the day appointed and given by the Essoin sent his Writ of Privy Seal to the Justices of that Court to signifie that the Defendant was in his Service before the day given by the Essoin and at the same day and every time sithence By a Statute made in the third year of the Reign of King Henry the seventh it was declared to be Felony for making Confederacies though not brought to effect or not so far as to an overt act our Laws declaring that affectus non punitur thoughts and intentions only are not to be punished to imagine the death of the King or of any Lord of this Realm or any other person sworn to the Kings Council Steward Treasurer or Comptroller of the Kings House by any of the Kings Houshold Servants and ordained That such Offences should be inquired by 12 sad men of the Cheque Roll of the Kings Houshold and determined before the Steward Treasurer and Comptroller or any two of them Which may evidence the intention of that King and his greater Council the Parliament to submit as little as might be such Offences of his Menial Servants unto the Judgment and Determinations of his Court of Kings Bench which otherwise was the most proper Court and means for the Trial thereof In the Reign of King Henry the eighth George Ferrers Gentleman his Servant and a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament being arrested and taken in Execution and Sir Thomas Moyle Knight then Speaker of the House of Commons and the Knights and Burgesses in Parliament assembled sending the Serjeant at Arms attending upon them to the Compter in Breadstreet in London where the said George Ferrers was detained a Prisoner to demand him the Officers of the City and others assaulted and grievously misused him of which a Complaint being made to the King he called before him all the Judges of the Kingdom declared unto them That he being Head of the Parliament and attending in his own Person upon the business thereof ought in reason to have Priviledge for him and all his Servants attending there upon him so as if Mr. Ferrers had been no Burgess or Member of Parliament but only his Servant that in respect thereof he was to have a Priviledge as well as any other To which all the Judges declaring their assent by Sir Edward Mountague Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings Bench the Grandfather of the now Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold an Order was made to fine the Sheriffs of London punish the Riotors and deliver Mr. Ferrers out of Prison but in compassion of the Creditor an Order was made that he should not lose his Money for which he had taken him in Execution And so great a regard was in that Kings Reign had of the Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber as that great and imperious Favorite Cardinal Wolsey Archbishop of York being at Cawood Castle in Yorkshire arrested by the Kings command by the Earl of Northumberland attended by Mr. Welch one of the Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber of High Treason and being unwilling to obey the Earls Authority unless he would shew the Kings Commission for it which the Earl refused to do the Contest at the last
ended in the Cardinals turning to Mr. Welch and saying Well there is no more to do I trow you are one of the Kings Privy Chamber your Name is Mr. Welch I am contented to yield unto you but not unto the Earl without I see his Commission for you are a sufficient Commissioner in this behalf being one of the Kings Privy Chamber And in the 21 year of the Reign of that King such a care was taken to keep not only the Chaplains of the King Queen Prince and Princess or any of the Kings or Queens Children or Sisters but of the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Chamberlain Steward Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings Houshold from any prejudice whilst they attended in their Honourable Housholds and exempt them from the Penalty of Ten Pounds a Month whilst they should not be resident at their Benefices as they did by an especial Exception provide for their Indempnity therein And in the same year and Parliament the Chancellor Treasurer of England and the Lord President of the Kings Council are said to be attendant upon the Kings most Honourable Person And in the 24 year of his Reign some of his Servants having been impannelled and retorned upon Juries he signified his dislike of the same unto the Justices of the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas in these words Trusty and Right-well-beloved We greet you well Whereas we understand that all manner of your Officers and Clerks of both our Benches be in such wise priviledged by an ancient Custom that they be always excepted out of all manner of Impannels We considering that the Hedd Officers and Clerks of our Houshold by reason of the daily Business in our Service have been semblably excepted in time passed unto now of late that some of them have been retorned in Impannels otherwise then heretofore hath been accustomed We will and command you That in case any Hedd Officer or Clerk of our Houshold shall hereafter fortune to be put in any Impannel either by the Sheriff of our Còunty of Kent or by any Sheriff of any County within this our Realm for to be retorned before you without our special Commandment in that behalf ye upon knowledge thereof cause him or them so impannelled to be discharged out of the said Impannel and other sufficient Persons to be admitted in their place and that you fail not this to do from time to time as often as the case shall require as ye tender our pleasure Yeoven under our Signet at our Manor of Richmont the fourth day of October in the twenty fourth year of our Reign To our Trusty and Well-beloved the Chief Justices of both our Benches and to all other their fellows Justices of the same In the Act of Parliament made in the twenty fifth year of his Reign against excess of Apparel there was a Proviso That all Officers and Servants waiting and attending upon the King Queen or Princess daily yearly or quarterly in their Housholds or being in their Checque Roll may by the Licence of the King use or wear Apparel on their Bodies Horses Mules c. according to such Licence And not only King Henry the Eighth but his three Estates the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament in the 31 year of his Reign did so much attribute to the Kings Servants in Ordinary and the Honour of their Imployments as to grant by Act of Parliament That the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Lord President of the Kings Council Lord Privy Seal the Great Chamberlain Constable Marshal and Admiral of England Grand Master or Steward of the Kings most Honourable Houshold and Chamberlain should in Parliament Star-Chamber and all other Assemblies which was in no Kings Reign before allowed sit and be pláced above all Dukes except such as should happen to be the Kings Sons Brothers Vncles Nephews or Brothers or Sisters Sons That the Lord Privy Seal should sit atd be placed above the Great Chamberlain Constable Marshal and Lord Admiral of England Grand Master or Lord Steward and the Kings Chamberlain and that the Kings Chief Secretary if he be of the Degree of a Baron should in Parliament and all other Assemblies sit and be placed before and above all other Barons and if he be a Bishop above all other Bishops not having any of the Offices above-mentioned Precedency amongst the English Nobility being heretofore so highly valued and esteemed as it was not seldom very much insisted upon And so as in the Reign of King Henry the sixth it was earnestly claimed and controverted betwixt John Duke of Norfolk and Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and in divers other Kings Reigns greatly contended for and stickled betwixt some of the Great Nobility The Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal of England and the Chamberlain of the Kings House and the Steward thereof as appeareth by their Subscriptions as Witnesses unto sundry Charters of our former and ancient Kings not having been before allowed so great a Precedency as that Act of Parliament gave them or as that high Place Trust and Office of Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England according to the Custom and Usage of former Ages in all or the most of the neighbour Kingdoms and Monarchies have justly merited who in the times of the ancient Emperors of Rome were as Gutherius noteth stiled the Quaestores Palatii and had in Vlpian's time who flourished in the Reign of Alexander Severus the Emperor antiquissimam originem an honourable and long-before original and so necessary in the then Administration of Justice as the Emperor Justinian that great Legislator and Compiler of Laws ordained That Divinae Jussiones Subscriptionem haberent gloriosissimi Quaestoris nec emissae aliter a Judicibus reciperentur quà m si subnotatae fuerint à Quaestore Palatii That the Imperial Mandates should be subscribed by the Chancellor who was sometimes stiled Justitiae Custos vox Legum Concilii Regalis particeps the Keeper or Repository of Justice the voice or mouth of the Laws and one of the Privy Council and those Mandates being sent not much unlike the Original Writs issuing out of our High Court of Chancery w th were then also called Breves were not to be received by the Judges unless they were signed by the Quaestor Palatii or Chancellor but subscribed their Names as Witnesses to Charters after Bishops Abbots and Barons as amongst many other instances may be given in that of Robert Parning Chancellor and of Randolf de Stafford Steward of the Houshold in the seventeenth year of the Reign of King Edward the third By a Statute made in the thirty second of the Reign of King Henry the eighth the Parliament did not think it unreasonable that there should be a Great Master of the Kings House and have all the Authority that the Lord Steward had By a Statute made in the thirty third year
of his Reign for the punishment of such as committed Murder or Man-slaughter in the Kings Court or did strike any man there whereby Bloodshed ensued the Trial of such Offenders was not thought fit to be within the Cognisance or Jurisdiction of any of the Courts of Westminster-hall or of any Court inferior unto them but ordained to be by a Jury of 12 of the Yeomen Officers of the Kings Houshold before the Lord Steward or in his absence before the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings Houshold And the Parliament in the first year of the Reign of Queen Mary repealing the aforesaid Act of the 32 year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth did touching the Great Master of the Kings House notwithstanding understand it to be reasonable that the Name Office and Authority of the Lord Steward should be again established And so little the Priviledge of the Kings Servants in Ordinary seemed to be a Grievance or illegal to be first complained of to the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold which Honourable Office and Place about the King appears to have been before that Great Office of Chamberlain of England by the mention of Hugoline Chamberlain to King Edward the Confessor and the Subscription of Ralph Fitz Stephen as a Witness to a Charter of King Henry the Second granted unto the Abby of Shirburn before they were to be subjected to Arrests or Imprisonments for Debt and other Personal Actions before Execution or Judgment had against them upon their appearance and not claiming or pleading their Priviledge for then or in such a case they have not sometimes been priviledged although the cause and reason of their Priviledge was as much after Judgement and Execution as before which a submission to the Jurisdiction of another Court and not claiming their Priviledge should not prejudice or take away no more than it doth in the Case of Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and their Servants who by their Priviledge of Parliament are not to be disturbed with Executions or any manner of Process before and after Judgment as Queen Mary did in a Case depending in the Court of Common Pleas betwixt Huggard Plaintiff and Sir Thomas Knivet Defendant direct her Writ to the Justices of that Court which was but as one of the old and legal Writs of Protection or something more especial certifying them That the said Sir Thomas Knivet was by her command in her Service beyond the Seas and had been Essoined and therefore commanded them That at the time appointed by the said Essoin and day given for his appearance he should not have any default entred against him or be in any thing prejudiced which the Judges were so far from disallowing as having before searched and finding but few and that before-mentioned Privy Seal in the 35 year of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth in the Case of the Kings Yeoman of the Buttery being held by them to be insufficient but declared not whether in substance or Form howsoever there may be some probability that it was allowed by the entring of it upon Record they did as the Lord Chief Justice Dier hath reported it advise and assist in the penning and framing of the Writ for Sir Thomas Knivet whereby to make it the more legal Queen Elizabeth who was as tender of her Peoples Liberties as of her own yet was upon some occasion heard to say That he that abused her Porter at the Gate of her House or Palace abused her did cause a Messenger of her Chamber to be sent unto a Defendant in the Court of Requests commanding him in her Name not to vex sue or trouble the Complainant but suffer him to come and go freely unto that Court until such time as other Order be by the Council of the said Court taken therein And in the second year of her Reign an Injunction was awarded to the Defendant commanding him to permit the Complainant to follow his Suit in that Court without Arrest upon pain of one hundred pounds In the same year Sir Nicholas Bacon that great and well-experienced Lawyer and Statesman Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and a man highly and deservedly valued both of Prince and People did in the Case between Philip Manwaring Complainant Henry Smallwood and others Defendants so well understand the aforesaid Priviledges of the Kings Servants to be just and legal as upon a Bill exhibited in Chancery by the Plaintiff to stay a Suit in the Marches of Wales he ordered That if the Complainant should not by a day limited bring a Certificate from the Officets of the Queens House or otherwise whereby the Court might credibly understand that his Attendance in the Queens Service was necessary that Cause should be determined in the Marches of Wales In the eighth year of her Reign Thomas Thurland Clerk of the Queens Closet being Plaintiff in the Court of Requests against William Whiteacres and Ralf Dey Defendants an Order was made That whereas the Complainant was committed to the Fleet by the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas upon an Execution of 600 l. the Debt being only 300 l. it hath been given this Curt to understand by divers of the Queens Highness most Honourable Privy Council that Her Majesties pleasure is to have and use the present and speedy Travel of the said Thomas Thurland in and about divers of Her Highness weighty affairs in sundry places of England and Wales for and about the Mineral Causes there to the very likely Commodity and benefit of Her Majesty and all her Subjects It is therefore Ordered and Decreed by Her Majesties Council of this Court that the said Thomas Thurland shall and may with his Keeper appointed by the Warden of the Fleet Travel into any part of the said Realm about the affairs aforesaid without the disturbance Let or Interruption of the said Defendants And to that purpose an Injunction is granted against the said Defendants their Attornies and Solicitors upon pain of one Thousand pounds and commanded that neither they nor any of them shall vex sue trouble molest or implead the said Complainant or Richard Tirrel Esq Warden of the Fleet or any other person whatsoever for the Travelling or departing of the said Thomas Thurland from the said Prison of the Fleete with his Keeper appointed as aforesaid from the day of the making of this Decree until the feast of all Saints next ensuing if the said Complainant so long shall have cause to attend about the said affairs And many Cases might be instanced where that great Supporter of Monarchy Regality and Honour in Her best of Governments would not suffer the Just Priviledges of Her Court and Servants to be violated but would be sure severely to punish the Contradictors and Infringers of them About the eighteenth year of her Raign the Earl of Leicester Master of the Horse unto that Excellent Queen and great preserver of Her Peoples
Liberties did commit to Prison one that had Arrested one of Her Servants without leave and the Creditor being shortly after upon his Petition released by the said Earl who blaming him for his contempt and misdemeanor therein and being answered by the Creditor that if he had known so much before hand he would have prevented it for that he would never have trusted any of the Queens Servants was so just as to inforce that Servant of the Queens to pay him presently or in a short time after the said debt And told him that if he did not thereafter take a better care to pay his Debts he would undo all the other of the Queens Servants for that no man would trust them but they would be constrained to pay ready money for every thing which they should have occasion to buy In the six and twentieth year of Her Reign Henry Seâkford Esq one of the Grooms of Her Majesties Privy Chamber being Complainant against William Cowper Defendant the Defendant was in open Court upon his Allegiance enjoyned to attend the said Court from day to day until he be otherwise Licenced and to stay and Surcease and no further prosecute or proceed against the Complainant in any Action at and by the Order of the Common Law And about the Seven and twentieth year of Her Reign some controversies arising betwixt the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and Sir Owen Hopton Knight Lieutenant of the Tower of London concerning some Liberties and Priviledges claimed by the Lieutenant and his refusal of Writs of Habeas Corpora and that and other matters in difference betwixt them being by Sir Thomas Bromley Knight Lord Chancellor of England the Earl of Leicester and other the Lords of the Council referred unto the consideration of Sir Christopher Wray Lord Chief Justice of the Queens Bench Sir Edmond Anderson Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Sir Gilbert Gerrard Knight Master of the Rolls they did upon hearing of both parties and their allegations Certifie under their hands that as concerning such Liberties which the Lieutenant of the Tower claimeth to have been used for the Officers and Attendants in the Tower some of them being of the Queens Yeomen of the Guard and wearing Her Livery Coates and Badges as they do now the Kings as not to be Arrested by any Action in the City of London and Protections to be granted unto them by the Lieutenant and his not obeying of Writs of Habeas Corpus They were of opinion that such Persons as are dayly Attendant in the Tower of London Serving Her Majesty there are to be Priviledged and not to be Arrested upon any plaint in London But for Writs of Execution or Capias Vtlagatum's which the Law did not permit without leave first asked the latter of which by the Writ it self brings an Authority in the Tenor and purport of it to enter into any Liberties but not specifying whether they intended any more than Capias Vtlegátum when it was only after judgement or such like they did think they ought to have no priviledge which the Lords of the Council did by an Order under their hands as rules and determinations to be at all Times after observed Ratifie and Confirm And our Learned King James well understanding how much the Weal Publick did Consist in the good Rules of Policy and Government and the support not only of His own Honor and just Authority but of the respects due unto his great Officers of State and such as were by him imployed therein did for the quieting of certain controversies concerning Precedence betwixt the younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons and the Baronets and others by an Ordinance or Declaration under the Great Seal of England In the tenth year of His Reign Decree and Ordain That the Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter the Privy Councellors of His Majestie His Heires and Successors the Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries the Chancellor and under Treasurer of the Exchequer Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Chief Justice of the Court commonly called the Kings Bench the Master of the Rolls the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas the Chief Baron of the Exchequer and all other the Judges and Barons of the degree of the Coife of the said Courts Now and for the Time being shall by reason of such their Honourable Order and Imployment have Place and Precedence in all Places and upon all occasions before the younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons and before all Baronets any Custom Vse Ordinance or other thing to the Contrary Notwithstanding In the four and thirtieth year of Her Reign Sir Christopher Wray Knight Lord Chief Justice of Her Court of Queens Bench Sir Edmond Anderson Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and the rest of the Judges of the aforesaid Courts seeming to be greatly troubled that divers Persons having been at several Times committed without good cause shewed and that such Persons having been by the Courts of Queens Bench and Common Pleas discharged of their Imprisonments a Commandment was by certain great Men and Lords procured from the Queen to the Judges that they should not do the like thereafter all the said Judges together with the Barons of the Exchequer did under their hands Exhibit unto the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Burghley Lord Treasurer of England their Complaint or Remonstrance in these words viz. We Her Majesties Justices of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer desire your Lordships that by some good means some Order may be taken that her Highness Subjects may not be Committed or detained in Prison by Commandment of any Noble Man or Counsellor against the Laws of the Realm either else to help us to have access unto her Majesty to the end to become Suitors unto Her for the same For divers have been imprisoned for Suing Ordinary Actions and Suits at the Common Law until they have been constrained to leave the same against their Wills and put the same to Order albeit Judgement and Execution have been had therein to their great losses and griefs For the aid of which persons her Majesties Writs have sundry Times been directed to sundry Persons having the custody of such Persons unlawfully Imprisoned upon which Writs no good or Lawful cause of Imprisonment hath been returned or Certified Whereupon according to the Laws they have been discharged of their Imprisonment some of which Persons so delivered have been again Committed to Prison in secret places and not to any Common or Ordinary Prison or Lawful Officer or Sheriff or other Lawfully Authorised to have or keep a Goal So that upon Complaint made for their delivery The Queens Courts cannot tell to whom to Direct Her Majesties Writs And by this means Justice cannot be done And moreover divers Officers and Serjeants of London have been many Times Committed to Prison for Lawful Executing of Her Majesties Writs Sued forth
of Her Majesties Courts at Westminster and thereby Her Majesties Subjects and Officers so terrified that they dare not Sue or Execute Her Majesties Lawes Her Writs and Commandments Divers others have been sent for by Pursevants and brought to London from their dwellings and by unlawful Imprisonments have been constrained not only to withdraw their Lawful Suites but have been also compelled to pay the Pursevants so bringing such Persons great summes of money All which upon Camplaint the Judges are bound by Office and Oath to relieve and help By and according to Her Majesties Laws And where it pleaseth your Lordships to will divers of us to set down in what cases a Prisoner sent to Custody by Her Majesty or her Council is to be detained in Prison and not to be delivered by Her Majesties Court or Judges we think that if any Person be committed by Her Majesties Command from Her Person which may be understood to be so when it is by the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings house or other great Offâcers of the Houshold who are commonly Privy Councellors and do it by their Princes Authority or by Order from the Council Board And if any one or two of the Council Commit one for High Treason such Persons so in the Cases before Committed may not be delivered by any of Her Courts without due tryal by the Law and Judgement of acquittal had Nevertheless the Judges may award the Queens Writ to bring the Bodies of such Prisoners before them and if upon return thereof the causes of their Commitment be certified to the Judges as it ought to be then the Judges in the cases before ought not to deliver him but to remand the Prisoner to the place from whence he came which cannot conveniently be done unless notice of the cause in general or else in special be given to the Keeper or Goaler that shall have the custody of such a Prisoner In which Remonstrance or Address it doth not appear that any Commitments therein complained of were for Arresting any of the Queens Servants without leave first demanded or that any of the matters therein suggested were for that only cause or before Judgements or Execution obtained some of them being expresly mentioned to have been after Judgements and no certain evidence more than for what came directly unto those Learned Judges by the before mentioned Mandate of the Queen for the supposed grievances therein which though much be attributed to the well weighed wisdom of those grave Judges and that their Information had as much of Truth as without a hearing of all parties and legal Examination of Witnesses could be found in it cannot be presumed to be had in a judiciall way after Trials or Convictions but received and taken in from the murmur and Complaints of some Attorneys or Parties only concerned without hearing of the other side or parties or that it was so prevalent with the Queen as to make any Order or restraint or cause any Act of Parliament to be made for that purpose For it will not come within the Compass or Confines of any probability or reasonable construction that those Reverend and Learned Judges Sir Christopher Wray and Sir Edmond Anderson who together with Sir Gilbert Gerard Master of the Rolls had in the case betwixt the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and Sir Owen Hopton Knight Lieutenant of the Tower of London In the seven and twentieth year of Her Raign which was but seven years before Certified under their hands unto Sir Thomas Bromley Knight Lord Chancellor and others of Her Privy Council that such persons as are daily attendant in the Tower serving Her Majesty the which was more remote from Her Person and Presence of Her Royal Residence or Palace at White-hall Were to be Priviledged and not to be Arrested upon any plaint in London but for Writs of Execution or Capias Utlagatum or such like they did think they ought to have no Priviledge And that Master Lieutenant ought to return every Habeas Corpus out of any Court at Westminster So as the Justices before whom it shall be returned as the cause shall require may either remand it with the body or retain the matter before them and deliver the body as Justice shall require would complain of Commitments of such as Arrested any of Her Servants without leave when it might be so easily had and the Lord Chamberlain of that time was likely to be as little guilty of enforcing Creditors to withdraw their Suits or loose their debts as the Lord Chamberlain and other great Officers of the Royal Houshold have been since or are now Nor do the words of that Information import or point at the Marshalsea of the Queens Court or Her Messengers to whom as the Kings Officers or Ministers of Justice the Queens Writ might have been brought or directed the sending of Pursevants there remonstrated being more likely to have been for some other Concernments and not for Arresting without leave which for ought that appears was never yet in foro Contradictorio upon any Cause or Action argued solemnly at the Bar and Bench adjudged to be a breach of any of the Laws of England or Liberties of the Subjects or not to be any good Cause of Arresting or Imprisoning such as in despite of Majesty would in ConContempt thereof make it their business especially when they needed not to do it to violate and infringe the Royal Jurisdictions and reasonable Customs of their Sovereign and Protector and the long ago and for many ages allowed Priviledges of their Servants And therefore William Earl of Pembroke L. Chamberlain of the Kings House a man very zealous for the Peoples Rights and Liberties may be believed not to have transgressed therein when he did about the latter end of the Reign of King James give His Warrant to one of the Kings Messengers of the Chamber to take into His Custody and bring before him one Mr. Sanderson for causing Sir Edward Gorge one of the Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber to be Arrested without Licence first obtained and being in the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr Lord Steward of the Kings most Honourable Houshold did commit a Clerk or Servant to a Serjeant at Law to the Prison of the Marshalsea for Arresting one of the Kings Servants without Licence and when he was bailed by the Judges upon a Writ of Habeas Corpus committed him again and being let at Liberty the second time upon a Writ of Habeas Corpus was again Committed by him and could not be Released until he had set at Liberty the Kings Servant And Philip Earl of Montgomery Lord Chamberlain of the King in His Most Honourable Houshold when he did the first day of November 1626. direct his Warrant to all Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs and Constables c. to permit Mr. Thomas Musgrave of Idnel in the County of Cumberland His Majesties Muster Master for the County of Westmerland to come
and barbarous manner carry and hale them along the streets to Prison being at noon day refusing to carry them first before a Magistrate as they ought to have done and as was by the said Gentlemen demanded however vpon calling some of the said parties complained of before us and entring into examination of the business we found in general that the carriage of the said Officers and their assistants had been such as was informed yet because the more particular inquiry thereof was a work not so fit to trouble the Board withal we have thought good therefore to refer the due examination thereof to your Lordship letting you to know that if as is conceived you understood of the miscarriage of the said Officers and past it over without reproof that you have wilfully failed both in discretion and duty for that you cannot be ignorant that the proper and usual way of proceeding in a case of this nature against his Majesties Servants had been not by committing them to Prisons but by an address or appeal to the Lord Chamberlain of His Majesties Houshold or in his absence to such other Principal Officers unto whom it appertains to give redress and therefore as the more we consider of it the more we marvel at the insolent carriage of your Officers and the Connivency of your Lordship and other the Chief Magistrates of the City So you are to know that His Majesty and this Board expects not only a good accompt from you in the examination and proceedings of the said Officers and others their assistants in this particular but that His Majestie expects and requires at your hands not as a Respect only but as a Duty that hereafter upon any the like occasions happening within the City concerning His Servants the proceedings against them be by Appeal and Information first to the Lord Chamberlain or in his absence to such other Principal Officers to whom it properly appertaineth and not by Commitments to Goals and Prisons at your pleasure And so we bid your Lordship very heartily Farewell From Whitehall the sixteenth of February 1628. Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Lord President Lord High Chamberlain Earl Marshal Lord Steward Earl of Holland Earl of Danby Chancellor of Scotland Lord Viscount Dorchester Lord Viscount Wilmot Lord Newburgh To Sir Richard Deane Lord Mayor of London And in the year 1629 granted a warrant for the apprehension of Humphrey Worrall for the Arresting of one of His Majesties Pensioners In the year 1630 the like against Maurice Evans for serving a Subpoena in the Court against John Durson The like for the apprehension of Edward Clark and Samuel Farrier of Canterbury upon the complaint of Thomas Potter for abusing him being imployed in the Execution of a Warrant A Warrant for the Commitment of William Acheson to the Gatehouse for transgressing his Order in arresting Master Shaw and giving his Lordship no notice A Warrant for the apprehension of Tirrell and David Edwards upon the complaint of Richard Eyre for detaining his Horse A Warrant dated the two and twentieth day of November in the year aforesaid for the apprehension of Master Morgan Goodwin Master William Small Under Sheriff of Middlesex and Thomas Brook a Bayliff upon the complaint of Doctor Robotham for an arrest Whereupon they being apprehended did the five and twentieth day of that November procure an Habeas Corpora to be brought to Carter the Messenger to whose custody they were Committed and were thereupon Released but presently by another Warrant his Lordship committed them to the charge of William Wattes The Second of February in the same year the said Lord Chamberlain sent his letter unto the Sheriff of Middlesex in these words Sir I understand that Sir John Wentworth is arrested upon an Execution at the suite of one Beeston and now remaining in your Custody and that some others have Petitioned me wherein when I have found cause I have given way under my hand if any other which have not leave shall offer to bring any Actions against him I do expect and require that you forbear to receive or entertain them unless you see my hand for your Warrant As you will answer the contrary The twelfth of February 1630 granted a Warrant for the Commitment of Symon Hayton and William Taylor for charging the said Sir John VVentworth in Execution being under arrest upon leave granted In the year 1631 a Warrant for the apprehension of Richard Graunt Fowler and John Havit upon the complaint of William Burton a messenger of the Court of Wards The like for the apprehension of Samuel Twynne and Stephen Symons for the Arrest of Ralph Short a post Master A Warrant to apprehend Master Roger Vrmiseon an Attorney of the Court of Common Pleas upon the complaint of Mr. Edward Crofts for an arrest without leave A Warrant for the apprehension of Masier upon the complaint of Nicholas Sherman for distreyning of his goods for his not appearance at the Marsh Court at Greenwich A Warrant for the Commitment of Peter Price to the Marshalsea for serving a Subpoena upon Master George Ravenscroft in the Council Chamber at Whitehall A Warrant for the apprehension of Robert Champion a Serjeant in the Poultry Compter for taking a Prisoner from the Kings Messenger by a Writ probably an Habeas Corpus out of the Kings Bench. In the year 1632 a warrant for the apprehension of John Perkins a Constable for serving the Lord Chief Justice's Warrant upon John Beard in Saint James's Park A Warrant for the Commitment of Leonard Ward a Clark of the Court of Common Pleas and Potters a Bayliff to the Marshalseas for arresting of Edward Pigot a Groom extraordinary without leave A Warrant for the apprehension of John Bishop one of the Lord Mayors Officers In the year 1633 a warrant for the apprehension of Anthony Tompson Clark John Richardson and others for the arrest of George Nicholson a Yeoman of the Guard The like to apprehend Griffin Jones upon the complaint of John Heydon one of His Majesties Musicians for abusive Language given him as fidling Rogue c. The like to apprehend Arthur Toogood and Morgan Castle Butchers for assaulting Mr. Pitcarnes the Master of the Hawkes man The like for the apprehension of Geoffrey Brittingham Anthony Carnaby and William Marbury upon the Complaint of Robert Wood for Actions laid upon him without leave A Warrant to the Bayliff of Westminster to forbear to admit any Writs or Actions against Sir Henry Wotton Knight His Majesties Servant sworn in the year 1627 one of the Gentlemen of His Majesties Privy Chamber Extraordinary in the name of any Person or Persons whatsoever but such as shall have leave Granted unto them under the Lord Chamberlains hand In the year 1635 a Warrant for the apprehension of one Master Atkinson and divers others for the arresting of the Lord Rich being not long before sworn a Gentleman of the Kings Privy Chamber Extraordinary In the year 1636
a certificate for Sir Gilbert Houghton Knight one of the Kings Servants enumerating Particular Priviledges for every of the Kings Servants viz. Not to be arrested without leave first obtained not to be warned or summoned to attend at Assizes or Sessions not to be impannelled upon enquests or juries not to serve in the Train bands nor to be chosen in Offices c. In the year 1637 a warrant for the apprehension of Francis Grove of Southwark Grocer upon the complaint of the Earl of Morton Captain of the Guard for sending his warrant being in Commission for the New Corporation for certain Yeomen of the Guard in Ordinary to compell them to serve in Person with their Arms. The like for the apprehension of Isaac Walter in Kent upon the complaint of Henry Hodsal a Yeoman of the guard for undue molestation of him by suing of him to the Utlary and seeking satisfaction in extremity upon his Goods and Chattels without detaining his person The like against Ezechiel Johnson Clerk and John VVilcox an Officer of the Lord Mayor of London for an Arrest of Master Grimsdich of the Great Wardrobe without leave A warrant for the apprehension of Alderman Andrews and of Kenelme Smith and John VVright Officers of the Sheriffs of London for the arresting of Mr. Laurence Hilliard Smith and VVright being thereupon Committed to the Marshalsea And in the same year a Petition of one James Goodland against John All of VVapping concerning a Debt of 400 l. pretended to be owing to him by the said John All was answered by the said Lord Chamberlain in these words I desire Mr. Reeve to call John All before him and to enjoyn him to take some speedy course for the satisfaction of this debt for which if he cannot prevail with him he is to let me understand so much whereupon I will take further Order In the year 1638 a Warrant was granted by the said Lord Chamberlain for the apprehension of Thomas Tyrrill Gent. VVilliam Wrynne his servant Thomas Parker a Constable Thomas Drew a Bricklayer and Edward Spooner all of the Town of Newington upon the complaint of Tucker one of the Yeomen of the Guard for being by them set in the Stocks Granted a warrant for the apprehension of Marriot Hewes and Carter Marshall's men for the arresting of one Mr. Beiston His Majesties Servant without leave And the like for the apprehension of Robert Howse and Christopher Bagehot Constables in VVare Thomas Swinsteed Post Master and George his Brother for setting Robert Redbury Harbinger for the Huntsmen of the Buck-hounds in the Stocks who appearing were committed and afterwards Released In the year 1639 a warrant was granted by the said Lord Chamberlain for the apprehension of VVilliam Barker and other Bayliffs for the arresting of Robert Vnderwood a VVarder of the Tower of London and Ordered to pay him charges which they consented unto The like against Ralph Atkinson of Brainford and Edward Rabone a Marshals man for arresting of Mr. Thomas Lisle the Princes Barbor Extraordinary And the like against Edmond Griffin of Cheapside and Richard Stersaker for arresting of Mr. VVilliam Harbert In the year 1640 a warrant was granted by the said Lord Chamberlain for the apprehension of Jeoffrey Sharpe Hugh Osborne and William Sympson upon the complaint of Mr. Man one of the Kings Chaplains for an arrest The like to apprehend Humphrey Lea Ralph Reason and Henry Wickliffe for arresting and taking in Execution the goods of David Porrel without leave And the like for the apprehension of Charles Steward and William Wyamford upon the complaint of William Lenet a Yeoman of the Guard for an abuse and affront in the Streets That Excellent Prince under whose authority he acted being not only careful to maintain His Servants just Priviledges but to avoid any ill consequences which might happen by any abuse thereof being in the year of our Lord 1631 informed that one Thomas Barnes having been sworn one of the Grooms of His Majesties Chamber in Ordinary upon a pretence that he was one of the Company of Players who had a licence to Practice under the name of the Queen of Bohemia's Players whereas in truth the said Barnes was by Profession a Carpenter nor did profess the quality of a Stage Player but was dishonestly and sinisterly obtruded upon the said Lord Chamberlain by the false and fraudulent Suggestion of one Joseph Moore that followed business in the name of the said Company out of a corrupt end to derive unto himself a benefit by entitling the said Barnes unto the Priviledge and Protection of His Majesties Service and did most Injuriously seek to defraud men of their just debts had drawn men to be bound with him for great summes of money and exposed them to the danger of Imprisonment to the end therefore that His Majesties Service might be purged from the stain of so dishonest and foul proceedings the said Lord Chamberlain was commanded by His Majesty to call the said Barnes and discharge and dismiss him and cause his name to be blotted and razed out of the list of His Majesties Servants All or many of which upon due consideration had may shew the necessity aswell as legality of the cares of the said Chamberlain by and under His late Majesties Authority Anciently and by a long prescription of many ages vested in his and other the Honourable Offices of the Kings most Honourable Houshold And might more fully have been manifested if many of the Books of State Court Memorials and Records had not in the latter end of the Raign of King James been lost by the fire which at that time burnt the Signet-Office and other buildings and Repositories thereof at Whitehall and by other Books of that most Honourable House If those Sons of Spoil Plunder and Rapine the godless party of pretending holiness in the late confusions and Rebellion when the Frogs not by the hardening of our late blessed Kings heart but his too much trust and condescentions and the Almighties permission did go up and come into that house and into our Kings Bedchamber and into the houses of his servants and upon his people When our England was a valley of slaughter all the beauty of the Daughter of our Zion was departed the grievous revolters and those which walked with slanders and our adversaries were the chief in that desolate and by them misused palace had not left any more then three little Books of the Lord Chamberlains Registry against their wills conceal'd and rescued from the year 1625 being the first year of the Raign of His late Majesty of blessed Memory until the year of our Lord 1641. When our miseries and troubles began to craul and ingender In which small remains those most just and necessary priviledges of the Kings Servants contained which reason of State the Soveraignty of Princes can neither want nor suffer to be disused do amongst other things appear to have been so moderately
and prudently used and with so much reason Justice and Equity as those books will testifie that very few of such Creditours or others which Arrested any of the Kings Servants without a licence or leave first had being brought by the Messengers before the Lord Chamberlain or other Great Officers of the Court unto whose jurisdiction it appertained were unless in case of their great obstinacy and contempt committed to Prison but with a necessary and fitting reprehension dismissed or if upon refusal to obey that Authority so fortified and strengthned by Lawes Ancient Customs and reason they were Imprisoned or committed they were upon their first Petition and Submission as easily released and discharged from it as it would have been easie for them not to have done it or disobeyed Kingly and just Authority or to have used but common Civility due to a neighbour much more to their Prince and Protector of all their own Liberties and Priviledges and that the Warrants for such offendors apprehension being so few and seldom were rather occasioned or happened to be no more by a greater Civility and respect formerly used towards the King and His Servants than is now in the unruly and unmannerly fancies and sauciness of such as would level all the Rights of Government and superiority to their own vain and groundless imaginations attended by a wilful and peevish pride and ignorance or the patience or ability of those that would rather endure such affronts and pay what was demanded than complain of the wrong done to Royal Majesty in the needless violation of His Servants Rights or Priviledges For the Number of them in that compass of Time doth not appear to be any more than 27 in Anno 1626 53. In Anno 1627 15 in Anno 1628 25 in Anno 1629-21-in Anno 1630 25 in Anno 1631-26-in Anno 1632-10-in Anno 1633-18-in Anno 1634-13-in Anno 1635-6-in Anno 1636-16-in Anno 1637-14-in Anno 1638-27-in Anno 1639-19-in Anno 1640. which in so great a number with their Servants and Retinues amounting to a far greater number than 1000 or 1500 of His Servants which are in the Checque Roll or pay of the Greencloth or Treasurer of the Chamber besides not a few extraordinaries and such as have no pay or quarter as they Terme it attending upon the King and His Officers in His House or Palace should not be enough to stir up any envious or causeless complaints against that part of their Priviledges not to be Arrested or Imprisoned without leave first granted Which can be accompted no less than necessary when the leave demanded to prosecute or bring Actions at Law may be to Arrest or Prosecute levi malitiosâ vel injustâ de causâ upon some trivial or unjust pretences and their desires not fit to be assented unto when it may be for some little stroke push or Blow given by the Kings Porters Servants Marshals or Marshals-men or other His Attendants to Repel or Keep Back a Crowding or unruly multitude of the vulgar from disturbing some great Solemnities or Assemblies at the Kings Court or Palace which is so often done as by a Statute made in the 33 year of the Raign of King Henry the eight which ordained rhe loss of the right hand of any striking or making bloodshed within any of the Kings Houses or Palaces or the Virge thereof there is an Exception to the like purpose or for the Heralds or Kings at Arms legally throwing down or breaking the usurped Hatchments or Coats of Arms of those who should not have been so proud or impudent as to have been guilty of it or for Monies already satisfied and the Bonds or Bills not taken up or Cancelled or Shopbooks not crossed and the Money paid not entred or for Taylors Exchangemen or other Trades mens stretched and over multiplied reckonings beyond either Justice or Truth who are many Times the more willing to Trust whereby to gain the opportunity of reckoning as they please or for a Licence to enter upon and bring an Action of Ejectment to recover the possession of some Lands Mortgaged for security of pretended and false reckoned Debts and Forfeitures and extremities beyond right reason and equity endeavoured to be put upon them by some small conscienced men abundantly versed in oppression or by some naughty and greedy Trades-men for all are not to be ranked with them who can fawn and creep and make friends to the prejudice of other Shop-keepers and break the tenth Commandment in the Decalogue to gain their Worships Custome and when they have well wrapt them in their largely reckoned Items make it their humble suit to have some bond or security by some friends to be bound with them or a Mortgage or Recognisance in the nature of a Statute Staple but when they have it by a late trick or cunning now much practised assign as soon as they can those Bonds or Securities if they be not originally taken in some of their friends or acquaintance names unto some who shall abundantly and with all the Rigors of the Law prosecute them and their Estates and will then notwithstanding alleage they cannot help it they were forced if any can be so far fallen out with their understandings as to believe them to borrow Money or satisfie others upon that Security or be undone or go to Prison and hope notwithstanding they will continue their custome and take such commodities as they need of them and being by themselves or Counterfeit Assigns become Masters of their advantages and swelled in their own conceipts to an Empire or Command over a turmoiled impoverished and over burdened Debtor will not only catch all opportunities of keeping their extended Lands at an usual undervalued rate but if not restrained be more merciless than some ship-racking Rock and more fierce and Cruel than some hunger bitten Banditties assisted by the encouragement of some desolate or unfrequented places or then some destroying Herecano in the Indies or America and Rail and Clamor if they may not tear them and their Estates in pieces to satisfie their impatient and unjust designs and demands and where they have taken or seised any of their goods Chattels or Housesholdstuff upon Executions taken out upon two or three or as many more Judgments with great penalties as they can intangle them by lending a little more Money or upon an account or new made reckoning insnare or seduce them into can cause them not only to be sold and bought again by some of their Vulture acquaintance at far undervalued Rates but reckon charges never laid out or disbursed or blown up by the wasting and Lavish expences of Bayliffs and Catchpolls amounting to as much Ravage and spoil as a Kennel of Hounds would make in a Pantry or the incursions of the rude Tartars and Savage Cossacks do not seldom bring upon their more Civilized and unfortunate Neighbours So as a Lord Steward Lord Chamberlain oâ other great Officer of the Kings houshold cannot be rationally adjudged
judged the King had done wrong and this was beyond their knowledge for the King might have committed them for other matters then they could have imagined and if they had bailed them it must have reflected upon the King that he had unjustly Imprisoned them and that the differences made in the Arguments of that Case betwixt remittitur and rimittitur quousque remitted or remitted how far or unto what Time he confest he could find no more in it but that they were new inventions to trouble old Records and Judge Doddridge said that for the difference betwixt remittitur and remittitur quousque he could never find any he had sate in the Court fifteen years and should know something surely if he had gone in a mill so long some dust would cleave to his Clothes And in the Petition of Right granted in the next ensuing year in the framing and procuring whereof Sir Edward Cook that Venerandus senex investigator legum Angliae very Reverend and great Lawyer whose Learned labors after his discontent for the loss of his place of Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings Bench and the former favors of King James tended as much as he could for the finding out and publishing of every thing that might advance the Peoples liberties but as little as might be for the Kings Just Rights and Prerogative assisted by that great Monarch of Letters and Learning Mr. Selden the Excellently Learned Sir Edwyn Sandys Sir Robert Philips Sir Dudly Digges Knights and other great Patriots and well wishers to the Peoples Liberties there was nothing omitted of their care and industry in the search and scrutiny of all that could be found of Law Learning Reason or Precedents to support the Subjects claims therein or effect their desires There is no restraint of that just Legal and very Antient Priviledge of the King and Queens Servants not to be Arrested or Imprisoned without Licence or leave first obtained of the Lord Steward Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold or those other great Officers of His House or Court to whom it appertained nor any thing directly or consultò urged against that necessary part of the Duty of Subjects to their Sovereign or Respects to Him in His Servants Nor in that fatal Remonstrance made by the House of Commons in the after long and over lengthened Parliament the fifteenth day of December 1641. wherein every thing that could be imagined or had but a face of a grievance in the government was too industriously amassed or mustered up was there any complaint of the Protections granted by the King or Priviledge of the Kings Servants in Ordinary from being arrested without Licence first had Neither in those high and mighty undutiful and unchristian like nineteen Propositions sent to His late Majesty in June 1642. whereby they denyed him the care and education of His Children office of a Common Parent to His People and a natural Father to His Children and would have gained to themselves or taken from him His Kingly Authority is there any thing in that particular complained of or desired in remedy of that since supposed evil But that assembly then called a Parliament were so far from hindring it as when they were afterwards Petitioned by divers Creditors against their own Priviledges and the Protections of themselves and their Servants they were pleased to answer that they would take it into their Consideration but in many years after were so busie in the Ruine of the Kingdom and a Purveyanâe of Places of honor and profit for themselves as the People had then and may yet have reason to believe they never intended to do it And were so unwilling to have some Prisoners Committed by them to be discharged by Bail upon Writs of Habeas Corpora as they bespoke it for their Priviledge to Commit Matthew Wren the late Bishop of Ely and let him continue 16 or 17 years a Prisoner in the Tower of London without shewing any Cause or making any Charge against him under a Colour and Pretense never to be justified that the Legislative Power and Soveraignty was Inhaerent and Radically in the People who had delegated and entrusted it unto them as the Aenigmatical and unknown Keepers of their Liberties whereby as they imagined their Commitees and Sub-commitees might take as Extravagant Liberties as themselves insomuch as when Mr. Edward Trussel a Loyal Citizen of London about the year 1643 brought his Habeas Corpus to be bailed upon that Parliaments Commitment for not payment of the twentieth part of his Computed Estate Serjeant John Wilde and Mr. Hill two Members of the House of Commons of the then miscalled Parliament came publickly to the Judge sitting in the Kings Bench and took such a course by Whispering and delivering Messages to him as the trembling Judge calling God to witness how willing he would be to do right and be afraid of no body declared it for a kinde of Law that he could not Bail any man where the Commitment was by such a Soveraign Court as the House of Commons in Parliament Who believed it to be so great an Incident and necessary requisite to their usurped Government as they did about the year 1645 Imprison a Citizen of London for Arresting a Nobleman of Germany for some Wares Trusted when he was but in the Company of some of the Parliament so called Members as they were going unto or coming from one of their Sumptuous or Thanksgiving Feasts or Dinners for success in their evil Actions And Oliver Cromwell their man of sin great Captain and Master of as much Perjury as he could himself Commit or drive others unto found it to be so necessary for the maintenance of His pretended State and unjust Authority enforced from the True Proprietor as he was pleased so to Indulge and Protect His Menial Servants with the like Priviledges as one Mewes who attended him could not be Indicted for perjury without Licence first obtained and one Captain William Sadlington having taken from a Dutch Merchant Residing in London Goods or Merchandise at Sea to the value of six or seven thousand pound or endamaged him as much and coming afterwards into England and for some special service done to that Protector of Mischief and Evil Designs being made one of his Domestiques or Servants in Ordinary the Dutch Merchant Commenceing an Action at Law against him for what he had lost and was damaged and causing him to be Arrested was not only with the Bailiffs that Arrested him Imprisoned but enforced before he could have his Liberty to discharge the said William Sadlington and Release his Action And some of his Major Gerals can if they please bear witness how much their Oliver and themselves protected his and their Menial Servants and extended the freedom from Arrest until leave or licence obteined as far as their Common Red-coated Souldiers and how much those Major Generals in their several Provinces did in other things all they could to Stifle
the Law and Domineer over it's proceedings one of them Threatning to Hang up the Lawyers Gowns in Westminster-Hall as the Colours and Ensigns of their once dearly beloved Covenanting but afterwards ill requited and beaten Scots brethren had been used For to Ask or Petition for a Licence or Leave of the Lord Steward Lord Chamberlain or other Great Officers of our Kings Houses or Palaces to whose Jurisdiction it doth belong before any Arrest or Prosecution at Law can be had against any of the Kings Servants is no more then our Laws well Interpreted do order and enjoyn to be done in all Actions Civil Real or Personal against Private and Common Persons or such as are not the Kings Servants for if the Action be laid or entred in the Court of Kings Bench it is to be made Returnable Coram Domino Rege before the King himself who by the Justices of that Court Assigned to hold such Pleas as the King in the Constitution and fixing of the Court of Common Pleas reserved to be heard by himself or those assistant Judges is supposed to Hear and Determine such causes as are proper for that Courâ or if the Action be desired to be Tryed in the Court of Common Pleas upon the Kings Original Writ which may as it was by the Franks not unfitly be called Indiculus commonitorius A Monitory Letter or Writ of the Kings Issuing out of the High Court of Chancery under the Teste me ipso or witness of the King himself and is to be sued out giving the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas which is the Legal and Proper Court Ordained for such matters a Warrant Power or Commission to hold Plea therein for otherwise saith Fleta nec Warrantum nec Jurisdictionem nequè cohertionem habent supposeth a Petition of the Plaintiff to the King as the Supreme Magistrate for a Debt or Summe of Mony unjustly deteined from him or some Trespass or Damage done unto him for which he cannot Sue or Prosecute without a Writ Remedial or Original granted by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Commanding the Sheriff of the County or Place where the Plaintiff layeth or desireth to try his Action if it be in Debt to take security of the Complainant for the proof or making good of his Action and to Command the Defendant or Party Complained of to pay the mony demanded and that if the Defendant do not pay the Mony upon the Sheriffs or his Officers or Bailiffs coming to him then they are to Summon him to appear before the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster at a Return or Certain time prefixed which at the least is to be fifteen days after the Teste or Date of the Original and many Times with a Longer Return and as many more days given if the Original be sued out but fifteen days before the Terms of S. Michael and Hillary Easter or Trinity Terms but of it be procured or sued out in the later end of a Michaelmas Term and returnable Octabis Hillarii will have more then fifty days betwixt the Teste and Return and if sued out in the end of an Hillary Term returnable the first Return of an Easter Term following will have no less then 60 days betwixt the Teste or Date and the Return or if it Issue out in the end of a Trinity Term returnable the first return of a Michaelmas Term following will have no less then one hundred days betwixt the Teste or date thereof and the Return and more if it be in any of the later Returns of any of the said Terms in all which if the summons had but fifteen days betwixt the date of the Original Writ and the time prefixt the Defendant hath by intendment of Law so much Time or Respite for the payment of the mony in the shortest prefixion but a great deal more in those which are longer which by the reason and equity of our Laws is not to be understood to be easie or probably upon the Instant of the Sheriff or his Officers Commanding the Debtor to pay it but upon a reasonable and possible Time betwixt the Teste and return allowed for the payment thereof very Rich and sufficient able men not having always so much mony at hand to pay at an instant and the monyes demanded do many times in the end of the suit although it be not upon a bond or bill with a penalty or doubling of the summe appear not at all to be due or for some or a great part thereof to be unjustly required and if upon a Bond or Bill with a forfeiture doubling the principal Money or in an Action of Covenant Detinue Annuity or Accompt cannot think it just or reasonable presently to pay as much Mony as an unjust Complainant will not seldom if he may be his own Carver exact of him and in all Actions Personal whether it be for Debt or Damage some part of the time between the obteining the Kings Licence or leave to Sue in the Case of those which are not his Houshold Servants is between the Teste and Return of the Original necessary to be imployed for the Plaintiffs giving to make good his Action for more but never less our Ancient Records do often mention until some of our later ages and the Judges thereof since the Raign of King Edward the fourth in favour of the Disabilities and Inconveniencies which might happen in the Cases of many of the Common or Impoverished sort of people who otherwise would be debarred from the Justice which our Laws intended them were content to dispense with it by reteining only the reason of the Law and allow of the Sheriffs Indorsing and Returning upon the Writ the feigned names of John Doe and Richard Roe for the Sureties put in by the Complainants to make good their Complaints or Actions who being before hand not a little furnished with their weapons of offense may without any difficulty not seldom suddenly surprise the altogether unprepared Defendants our Laws not without cause believing it to be possible that Rich men might oppress the poor and that it is many times easier to offend then to defend and therefore that way of Inforcing the Plaintiffs to give Sureties or Pledges to prosecute their Actions was heretofore so strictly observed as if no Sureties or Pledges to Prosecute were put in by the Plaintiff he could not prosecute the Defendant at Law and if he made not his Action or Complaint appear to be just had in those more Legally Thrifty Times for the Kings Rights and benefit a fine set or Imposed upon him by the Judges pro falso clamore for his causeless accusation which doth frequently occur in the fine or Iter Rolls of the Judges of Assise in the Raign of King Edward the first and was Estreated and Returned into the Exchequer to be leavied upon his Lands Goods or Estate And all that or some of that
nature could not be without some Suits or Controversies it would be better to introduce certain forms of Laws in the proceedings thereof by which by the Judges appointment men might manage and frame their actions and fuits than to suffer men to fight and brawl one with another did ordain that nemini liceret in judicio experiri nisi impetrata prius agendi formula a Collegio Pontificum No man was permitted to prosecute another at Law until he had obtained a form or direction for his Action from the College of Priests who were then as the Priests amongst the Hebrews the most learned and experienced afterwards the Praetor or Lord Chief Justice or Juris Civilis Custos Guardian or Keeper of the Law in the time of their republique had authority actionem dare to allow of the action or negare to disallow it and prohibited any Action to be prosecuted against a Parent or Children or against a Patron or the Parents of a Patron sine permissu suo without his license But afterwards when that imperious mistress of the world was married to the Caesars or Roman Monarchy their Emperors as Dioclesian and Maximian Gordian Valerian and Galienus and their successors did by their Rescripts of which infinite examples saith Brissonius might be instanced allow of their Petitions for Debts Trespass or other matters before they were remitted to the Judges appointed and thinks that the original of that Custom came ab ultima antiquitate had a long before and very antient foundation Et apud Francos amongst the old French there appears to have been antiently the like address to their Kings for Justice before they were recommended to the Judges And howsoever by the favour of some of our later Kings and their Subordinate Courts of Justice for the ease and expedition of the Subjects in their suits and actions as they can now of course as it was acknowledged to be in the Reign of King Edward the â ex gratia cursoria by an indulged course as they call it out of the Courts to whose Jurisdiction it belongeth take out writs and process to arrest and prosecute as they shall have occasion without the observance of those good and wholsome former rules and directions of our Laws yet there is no record or proof to be found that any of our Kings have so far indulged those courses as to release in that particular the rights and privileges of themselves and their servants in that necessary and well-becoming enforcing of leave or license first to be had before any action or suite commenced against any of their servants which the Laws and reasonable Customs of England derived from the rational Laws and Customs of so many wise and prudent Nations standing yet in force and unrepealed or unabrogated did and do yet intend and direct to be used in the case of all other men that were not the Kings Servants And the Civil Law having taught our Common Law that excellent use and policy of Tenures in Capite and by Knight-service the rules whereof they ought to observe in those services obliging a gratitude as long as they hold those lands in so beneficiary a manner which do tanquam ossibus haerere fix and become inherent and as it were connatural to the Lands would if our Common Law should be silent and there were no Antient Customs or usages to direct it injoyn an observance and respect towards their fellow servants as much as is now claimed in that particular by the Kings servants not to be arrested imprisoned or molested in their Persons or Estates without leave or licence first obtained of their Sovereign for if any sought to disturb their service or quiet before that late unhappy conversion of those Tenures into free and common socage which our seri nepotes and posterity will as may justly be feared rather lament with the weeping Prophet Jeremy than have any the least cause or occasion of rejoycing or taking any comfort in that their supposed freedome or acquest they would not only have been deservedly branded with that most infamous and in it self a worse than Pilloried note of Ingratitude but where the Civil Law and the reason of it could reach them be lyable to the forfeiture or loss of the Fee or Land holden and therefore it was that those feudatary Laws which have gained so great a reputation and entertainment throughout all Europe the most civilized and well-governed quarter or fourth part of the world and extended it self into some considerable parts of the other three as far almost as the habitations of the wild and savage part of them did adjudge Vasallum ob feudarii juris inficiationem proprietate feudi mulctari That a Vassal or Tenant by Knight-service may if he deny the rights and observances due to the Lord of the Fee be deprived or punished by the loss of it Et contumacia quodamodo inficiationi feudi aequiparatur ex qua ingratus cliens ipsa etiam mulctaretur fundi proprietate Clientelaris and a contumacy or contempt of the Lord of whom the Client or Tenant holdeth his Land is somewhat like to the denyal of the Lord Rights whence it is that an ingrateful Client or Tenant may be punished by the loss of the Land for Reverentiam honorem debet vasallus Patrono nec eum offendere debet the Vassal or Tenant oweth reverence and honour to his Patron or Lord of his Land ubi à utem debetur reverentia vel ubi honor naturaliter est praestandus ibi est necessaria veniae impetratio for where Reverence is due or honour by the Laws of nature is to be performed there or in such cases the asking of leave or licence will be necessary from which our Common Law doth not much dissent when by King Henry the first his Laws Qui facit advocatum contra Dominum suum per superbiam perdat quod de eo tenet he which proudly and presumptuously retaineth an advocate against his Lord was to forfeit the Lands which he held of him and where leave is given unicuique se defendere in quolibet negotio to every one to defend himself upon all occasions there is an exception that it must not be contra Dominum quem tolerandum against the Lord whom he is to forbear and the words of the Tenant by Knights-service doing his homage wherein he doth say Jeo deueigne vostre home foyal loyal I become or acknowledge my self to be your man faithful and loyal carries with it an obligation of fidelity de vita membris suis terreno honore observatione consilii sui per honestum utile of life and members and of all earthly honor and observance and keeping his Counsel in all things honest and profitable saith the authentique or Red book of the Exchequer and the Tenants holding of his hands betwixt the Lords in the doing of his homage signifieth saith our Bracton Fleta and Coke reverentiam
subjectionem Reverence and subjection and being then unarmed and his sword ungirt denoteth that he is never to be armed against or opposite to his Lord which by prosecuting or arresting any of his servants without leave he may well be deemed to do and in that faedere perpetuo as to them eternal league betwixt him and his Lord is not saith Bracton propter obligationem homagii by the obligation of his homage to do any thing quod vertatur domino ad exhaeredationem vel aliam atrocem injuriam which may turn to the disheriting of his Lord or other great injury which a sawcy and unmannerly arrest and haling of his servants to prison without licence first obtained hindring thereby his dayly and special service wherein his health safety and honor may be more than a little concerned endangered or prejudiced must needs by understood to be which if he shall do justum erit judicium quod amittat tenementum it will be just that he should lose his Land and our Writ of Cessavit per ãâã by which the Tenant if he perform not his services to his Lord within two years shall have his Land recovered against him redeemable only by paying the arrears of rents if any and undertaking to perform his services better for the future bespeaks the same punishment a certain conclusion will therfore follow upon these premisses that all such as did before the conversion of Tenures in socage hold the King their Lands immediately in Capite and by Knights service ought not to sue or molest any of his servants without license and although that inseparable Incident of the Crown and most Antient and noble Tenure of Chivalry and military service is now as much as an Act of Parliament can do it turned to the Plow or socage Tenure yet the fealty which is saith Sir Edward Coke included in every doing of homage which being done to a mesne Lord is always to have a Salva fide saving of the Tenants faith and duty to the King his heirs and Successors doth or should put all that are now so willing to hold by that tenure and to leave their Children and Estates to the greedy and uncharitable designs of Father-in-Laws under the conditions and obligations of fealty in mind or remembrance that by the fealty which they do or should swear unto the King and the oath of Allegiance which containeth all the Essential parts of homage and fealty which are not abrogated by that Act of Parliament for alteration of the Tenures in Capite and by Knights service into free common socage and the Oath of Supremacy to maintain and defend the Kings Rights Praeheminences and Jurisdictions cannot allow them that undutifull and unmannerly way of Arresting Molesting or Imprisoning any of the Kings Servants without leave or licence first had and that a Copyholder in Socage forfeits his Lands if he speak unreverent words of his Lord in the Court holden for the Mannor or goeth to any other Court wherely to intitle the Lord thereof to his Copyhold or doth replevin his Goods or Cattel upon a Distress taken by the Lord for his Rent or Service or refuse to be sworn of the Homage which in Copyhold Estates is not taken away by the Act of Parliament of 12 Car. Regis Secundi for the taking away of Homage upon Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service And where a Copyhold Tenant against whom a Recovery is bad cannot have a Writ of false Judgement he hath no other remedy but to petition the Lord to Reverse the Judgement nor can have an Assise against his Lord but may be amerced if he use contemptible words in the Court of the Mannor to a Jury or without just cause refuse to be of it that all the Lands of England are held immediately or mediately of the King that every Freeman of London besides the Oaths of Allegiânce and Supremacy takes a particular Oath when he is made Free to be good true and obeysant to the King his Heirs and Successors and doth enjoy all the Liberties and Freedome of the City Trade and Companies by and under them And that they and all other Subjects his astricti Legibus which are under such Obligations cannot by their Homage Fealty Tenure of their Lands natural Ligiance under which they were born and Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy without violation of them and the hazard of their dreadfull consequences incroach upon those just and rational Rights and Priviledges of the Kings Servants confirmed by as many Acts of Parliament as our excellent Magna Charta of England hath been at several times after the making thereof at the granting of which King Henry the 3 d. took such care of his own Rights and Priviledges as by his Writ of Proclamation to the Sheriff of York wherein mention being made that he had granted to the people the Liberties mentioned in the Magna Charta which he would have to be observed he commanded him nevertheless that all his own Liberties and priviledges which were not specially mentioned and granted away in that Charter should be specially observed as they were used and accustomed in the times of his Auncestors and especially in the Raign of his Father King John For our allegiance due to the King being vinculâm arâtius a more strict tye betwixt the King and his Subjects ingaging the Soveraign to the Protection and just Government of his people and they unto a due Obedience and Subjection unto him by which saith the Custumary of Normandie âi tenentur contra omnes homines qui mori possunt vivere proprii corporis praebere consilium adjuvamentum ei se in omnibus Innocuos exhibere nec ei adversantium partem in aliquo fovere to give him councel and aid against all men living and dying to behave themselves well towards him nor to take any ones part against him will leave such infringers of his Royal Rights and Piviledges inexcusable for the dishonour done unto him by Arresting Molesting or Imprisoning his Servants upon any Actions or Suit without leave or licence and at the same time when many of them do enjoy the Priviledges of HAMSOCNE a word and priviledge in use and practice amongst our Auncestors the Saxons or questioning and punishing of any that shall come into their House Jurisdiction or Territotory by the gifts grants or permission of the King or some of his Royal Progenitors deny or endeavour all they can to enervate the Rights and Liberties of him and his Servants when they may know that he and his Predecessors Kings and Queens of England have and ought to have an Hamsocne Ham in the Saxon Language signifying domus vel habitatio an house or habitation and Socne libertas vel immunitas a liberty immunity or freedom to question and punish any that shall invade the Liberties and Priviledges belonging to his House Palace and Servants vel aliquid aliud faciendum contra
Familiae Regiae cum inter se tum vel adversus alios controversiae in Consilio Procerum Populi disceptantur the controversies of suits which is to be understood where the Judicium or Tribunal in Aula Caesarea in the Emperors Court cannot compose them of the Emperors family brought eithâr by or against them are to be heard or decided in the Diets of other publike meetings of the States of the Empire At Florence Siena and Pisa in Italy no man may arrest or commence a suit against a Courtier Souldier or Estranger without a special Licence from an Officer of the great Dukes Court thereunto appointed In the very large Dominions of the Ottoman Empire such as receive any wages or pay coming from the Exchequer or have any Office depending on the Crown are commonly free from the least Injury to be offered unto them when such as offend therein are sure to be severely punished Those sons of Winter rudeness the Russians or Moscovites can in their small commerce with Latine or other learning and the better manners of their neighbour and other Nations so well understand the Privileges or respect of Kings and Princes Embassadors who are therein but as their especial Servants or Messengers as when in the Earl of Carliles Embassy from our Soveraign King Charles the second thither to the Tzar or Emperor of Moscovy in the year 1664. a Gentleman of Plescoe having seized or distreyned two Horses belonging to the Embassadors Train which he had found in the night to have broken into his Pastures the Governor or Plescoe was no sooner enformed thereof but he apprehended the Gentleman and sent him bound to the Embassador to beg his life which upon his acknowledgement of the indiscretion of the fact was easily pardoned by the Embassador the King of Sweden not denying those respects which are due ro Embassadors when in an Embassy into Sweden in the same year he did at the Embassadors request release out of prison one of the Embassadors servants that had in a Duel slain a German Colonel of the Embassadors retinue The People of Holland and their confederate Provinces who do so fondly dream of their freedoms do not think their so hardly gained liberties lost or retrenched when for the military part of their Illustrious Princes of Orange or Stadtholders Domestiques or any of those they call the States general servants being the greatest part of their Menials they cannot Arrest and prosecute any of them at Law before leave petitioned for and obtained and as for any other of their servants not imployed in the War or any of those many several sorts of Officers and Offices appurtaining thereunto there are enough of that Nation can tell that their Greffiers or Process makers can although they are to make out their Mandates and Process ordinarily and in common forms without a special order of the Judge or Recht Heer so easily find the way to a Biass or partiality as to deny it in the case of any of their Superiors Domestiques until they have a special order for it which after a tedious attendance is not to be gained until the matter or debt complained of be referred and put to certain vreede mackers Peace-makers or Arbitrators who can toss the Case in a Blanket and make the Plaintiff a Labyrinth of delays which at long treading shall only bring him to a Mandate and a tyring chargeable and tedious prosecution at their Law against such a pâotected seemingly unprotected servant Nor is it rationally to be believed that the servants attending upon the person or in the Court of the Emperor of China whose Dominions are as Samedo saith as big as Spain France Italy Germany the Belgicque Provinces and Great Brittain where the Mandarines his great Officers of State Lord Lieutenants or Governors of Provinces are by the common people so highly reverenced as they are as they pass almost ador'd in all places the people passing in the Streets alighting off their horses or coming out of their Chairs or Sedans when they meet them do not enjoy as great a Privilege as the Servants in ordinary of our English Kings do claim to be free from Arrests or suits in Law before leave or licence first obtained of some of the superiour Officers of his Court or Houshold wherein there are nine Tribunals called Kicu Kim particularly appointed for matters of controversies which concern the Servants In those largely extended Empires of Japan Persia Industan and all the African and Asiatique Kingdoms and Dominions where the power and will of the Princes are their Laws the fear and obedience of their Subjects are so very great and their reverence so extraordinary as they do honour and esteem them as Demi-Gods and have so great a respect of their Chancellors Privy Councellors great Officers of State and servants implyed by them no man can so much mis-use his reason or understanding as to harbor any thought or imagination that the servants of those Emperors or Princes are at any time without leave or license arrested or prosecuted at Law And well might our Kings and Princes and all other Soveraign Kings and Princes understand the mis-usage and disgrace of their servants to be Crimen immunitae Majestatis no small crime or lessning of Majesty and an abuse and disparagement to themselves when the Romans with whom their neighbours the Sabines scorned to Ally or marry in regard of their then ignoble race and originals could in the height and grandeur of their all-conquering Republique after so many liberties obtained by taking them from others creat and constitute Majestatem populi Romani a Majesty so called of their faction breeding inconstant and popular government and accuse Rabirius Posthumus of Crimen laesae Majestatis high Treason for that being a Citizen of Rome he had contra morem majorum the usage and custom of the Romans made himself a Servant or Lacquey to Ptolomy King of Aegypt at Alexandria whereby to procure some money to be paid which was there owing unto him Neither are those that stand before our Kings and Princes or attend upon their persons or near concernments of their Royal Houshold as Servants in ordinary to be ranked amongst the multitude or put under an ordinary Character when reason of State reputation of Princes and the usage and custom of Nations have always allowed distinctions and respects proper and peculiar unto them For so much difference was alwayes betwixt the servants of the Kings of England who by the irradiation of Majesty and Regal Resplendency are not without some participation or illustration of it as they were always allowed a precedency before the greatest part of their Subjects not of the Nobility and Clergy for the Grooms of the Kings Bed-chamber doe take place of any Knight whether he be the Kings servant or not and a Knight being the Kings Servant is to take place of any Knight which is not the Kings servant in ordinary the
Westminster did in his valedictory oration or speech made to the Society of Grays-Inne whereof he was a member at his departure from thence when he was made a Serjeant at Law mention it to have been a custome in that House at his first coming thereinto to admit none but such as were Gentlemen born And Sir John Ferne was so far from allowing the degree or title of Barrester to make one ignobly born to be thereby ipso facto in truth a Gentleman as he was of opinion that if such a Barrester were not before a Gentleman born it only gave him as it did to Doctors of Law Divinity Physick Prothonotaries and other Learned men a capacity to demand or have a Coat of Armes given him and to be then stiled a Gentleman otherwise he might only write himself A. B. Gentleman of Lincolns or Grayes-Inne but not A. B. of Lincolns or Grayes-Inne Gentleman and was no longer such a reputed Gentleman than he continued in that Society into which he was admitted and wished that Supreme Authority would renew the first institution of those Assemblies and that by Visitation all such might be weeded out that cannot shew the badge of a Gentleman For notwithstanding that the famous Lawyer Vlpian was sometimes stiled Nobilis and at other times Clarissimus yet if he were not born a Gentleman it was propter Sapientiam vel Nobilitatem animi in regard of his Wisdom and Nobility of mind improprie dictum and improperly so called For the title of Gentleman well understood hath more of a Worshipfull signification than the name or title of Esquire which in its primitive use or acception was but a Scutifer or Armiger a Shield or Armour-bearer as was that of Jonathans Servant to a Horseman or Gentleman for such were they most commonly called or allowed to be who held their Lands of the King in Capite or by Knight-service and at the old Rome it was a credit or mark of esteem to be said and believed to be a Gentleman de gente Julia Octaviana vel Claudia of such or such a Kinred Off-spring or Race as the Children of Israel were long before known and distinguished by their Tribes or Genealogies And that eminently learned Antiquary Sir Henry Spelman inveighing against such an abuse of the title of Esquire wonders that the Benchers of the Innes of Court would suffer it and saith that not long before this present Century or age wherein we now live Nominatissimus in patria Jurisconsultus aetate provectior etiam munere gaudens publico praediis amplissimis generosi titulo bene se habuit the worthiest antient Lawyer and most eminent in his Countrey of great Estate and in a publick Office did well content himself with the title of a Gentleman sic alii nuper viri splendidi sic quidem hodie celeberrimus Serviens ad Legem so other eminent men and so a famous Serjeant at Law forte guod togatae genti magis tunc conveniret Civilis illa Appellatio quam Castrensis altera probably because that Civil Appellation or Title did more agree with the Gown or men of the Long Robe than that of Esquire which was derived from War or antiently used but as an attendant upon it And in that did not much dissent from the learned Sir Robert Cotton who believed that the bearing of Armes was not before the time of Bartolus that great Civil Lawyer who lived about the year of our Lord 1356. in the Reign of Charles the 4th Emperor permitted to Gown-men Lawyers or Advocates or as the French do term them Men of the Long Robe and under that name saith he are Learned men Clergy and Scholars comprehended or else why should that great Lawyer Bartolus argue the matter whether it were convenient that he should take or bear the Armes which that Emperor offered to give him being a peculiar Reward and Honour in Military Service in antient time or whether he should refuse it at the Emperors hands for if it had been then usual for the Long Robe to have enjoyed the honour of bearing of Armes Bartolus would never have doubted thereof But since it was not then accustomed he made it a question whether he should take those Armes or no but in the end concluded that the Fact of his Prince was neither to be disputed or rejected and therefore was willing to assume the Armes which the Emperor had given him And in England without the Authority of their King Soveraign amongst other the affairs and businesses of Genealogies bearing allowing or granting of Coats of Armes usage of titles and distinctions of Degrees delegated to the principal Heralds and Kings of Armes in their several Provinces will as little become those which are not of Gentle extraction in their unduly assumed title of Esquire as it would do an High Sheriff Justice of Peace or Escheator being no Esquires and sometimes no Gentlemen to imagine themselves to be Esquires or any more than quasi Esquires or Esquires improperly so called because they themselves gave the Clerk or writer of their Patents or Commission a direction so to stile them or the Clerk or writers pen following the mode of the like mistakings did with as little authority as reason so create them which supercilious self-conceited Errors the Kings Great Seal of England and the great Honour and Authority which doth legally and justly appertain unto it cannot support or make to be no Errors when as it is male recitando although the Kings giving by an actual Ceremony the Honour of Knighthood to one that is not a Gentleman born doth ipso facto in the opinion of our learned Selden make such a Knight to be a Gentleman and will be as much without the reach of a Non-obstante or dispensation as where Lands are said to be one mans when they are anothers a Town named a City when it is not a Church said tâ be in one Diocess or County when it is in another or when a man disenabled or ungentleman'd by reason of his Fathers attainder of Treason and corruption of blood shall without restoration or reversal of that Attainder be mentioned or recited in the Kings Letters Patents as an Esquire or Gentleman Or that an High Constables Wife should swell her self into an opinion that her Husband is as much an Esquire as the best because the Sheriff Under-Sheriff or Under-Sheriffs Deputy or Clerk of the County where he dwelleth when he was retorned to be a Jury-man foolishly and carelesly stiled him in his Pannel by the name and title of Esquire But would be as great an affront to truth and contradiction to reason as some Citizens of London late invented piece of proud non-sense or ungrounded phansie to stile a wealthy Citizen an Alderman or dream that he is one when he is none at all and paid a great Fine that he might be none and is not so much as entitled to wear an Aldermans Gown
Spanish Ambassadors not long ago in Holland and a little after in England the cares which Princes to whom they are sent have taken to give them satisfaction or to prevent their jealousies or discontents their gifts and presents unto them their Secretaries and principal of their Servants personal and peculiar honours and favours to Ambassadors distinct from a greater to their Soveraign and their sometimes bold and resolute refusals where they found any diminution or neglects of which Bodin Besolus our learned Doctor Zouch and Sir John Finet in their learned Books de Marsellaer Albericus Gentilis Legatis Legationibus concerning Embassies and the Relation of the Earl of Carlisle's stout and prudent management of his Embassies into Muscovy will afford plenty of instances and examples With the more than ordinary civilities and respects used by divers Princes Cities Common-wealths to Ambassadors of Princes and States in League or Friendship with them in their passage to the Princes to whom they are sent or return from their Embassies when the character or representation of their Prince being laid by they are but little more than what they were in their former degrees or qualities as our Sir Daniel Harvey sent to Constantinople and the Earl of Winchelsea in his coming home from the like Imployment can testifie And the great care which hath been taken by the Law of Nations and all civilized Kingdoms States and Commonwealths of Christendom of the Priviledges of Ambassadors which at the highest esteem that can be given them are no other than Extraordinary Servants which for their great abilities in Learning State affairs or Foreign Languages were made choice of by their Soveraign sometimes out of the Subjects and Nobility not immediate Servants and at other times some of the Servants and Officers in Ordinary as of the Privy-Chamber and Bed-Chamber held by the Custome of the wiser and more prudent part of Nations to be so sacred and inviolable as the Emperor Augustus made the putting to death of his Ambassadors and Heralds Titurius and Arunculeius by the Germans to be the cause of a War made against them and swore never to cut the hair of his head and beard untill he had punished them for that misdemeanor And the Greeks and Romans those great Masters of wisdom prudence and civilities and the Persians and many other Nations made it to be some of their greatest concernments to vindicate any the least indignities or injuries offered or done unto their Messengers or Ambassadors And our Laws have informed us that in the 22 th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3 d. one John at Hill was condemned for High Treason for the Murder of A. de Walton Nuncium Domini Regis missum ad mandatum Regis exequendum the Kings Ambassador for which he was drawn hanged and beheaded for saith Sir Edward Coke Legatus ejus vice fungitur a quo destinatur honorandus est sicut ille cujus Vicem gerit Legatos violare contra jus gentium est and Ambassador represents him that sent him and is to be honoured accordingly for it is against the Law of Nations to violate or wrong an Ambassador Et honor Legati honor mittentis est Proregis dedecus redundat in Regem the honour of an Ambassador is the honour of him that sends him and any dishonour done unto him redounds unto his Prince or Superiour For it was in the Reign of King Richard the second adjudged in Parliament to be High Treason to kill or violate an Ambassador of any Prince or Commonwealth in the Case of John Imperiall an Envoy or Ambassador from Genoa slain by the malice of some of his Adversaries and declared in Parliament que le case eslant examine dispute inter les Seigniors Commons puis monstre al Roy en pleine Parliament estoit illonques nostre Seignior le Roy declares determinus assentus que tiel fait coupe est Treason crime de Royall Majesty blemye en quel case il ne doit allower a nullui priviledge del Clergie that the Case being examined and debated betwixt the Lords and Commons and afterwards shewed to the King in full Parliament it was then before the King determined and agreed that the act was Treason and a crime in derogation of Royal Majesty in which no Priviledge of Clergy was to be allowed The great Gustavus Adolphus not long ago victorious King of Sweden made the neglect and slighting of his Ambassadors by Ferdinand the second Emperor of Germany a Justification or Proem of his after most famous and notable exploits against him in Germany and his Ambassadors to be had in such regard as they could safely travel through Fields of his subdued Enemies blood conquered Towns Cities sacked and Armies ready marshalled to act and execute the direfull Tragedies of Battel and Bellona and to be every where protected and not injured And within a few years last past Don Mario the then Popes Brother being guilty only of an affront given at Rome to the Duke de Crequy the French Kings Ambassador by the Corsairs the Popes Guards the Popes Nuntio was in great displeasure sent away from the Court of France and a War so threatned as that imagined Spiritual Father of the Popish part of Christendom was with great loss of reputation enforced to submit to such Conditions as the King of France claiming to be the eldest Son of the Church would besides the punishment of the Delinquents impose upon him and suffer a Pillar to be erected in Rome to testifie the outrage and the severe punishment inflicted for it to the wonder of many Nations and people coming thither that he who sold so many Millions of Pardons to the living and dead should not be able to obtain of the Most Christian King a pardon and forbearance of that Pillar of Ignominy which continuing some years was lately as a signal favour to the See of Rome permitted to be taken down and no more to be remembred And it was not without cause that our Royal Soveraign did in October 1666. by his Letter to the Estates of Holland and the United Provinces justly charge upon them amongst other the causes of his War with them injuries done unto him and his Subjects by the imprisoning of the Domestick Servants of his Envoy and likewise of his Secretary and putting a Guard upon his House And was so necessary an observance amongst Princes and Republiques as howsoever they then faltred and misused their Wisdoms therein that Nation and their Union of Boores Mariners Artificers and others although many of them could hardly find the way to put off their hats or use civilities unto their great and Princely Protectors the Illustrious Princes of Orange have deemed it to be a part of the Subsistence and Policy of that now flourishing Republique to be strict observers of all manner of civilities and respects to the Ambassadors of Princes And the Swisses
and Mountainous petty Cantons or Republiques who not long ago having massacred all their Nobility and eternally as they hope prohibited the race of them from enjoying any Offices or Imployments in their Armies or Republiques and can boastingly answer inquisitive strangers or passengers with nos non habemus Nobiles we have no Nobility can notwithstanding all their Military Barbarities pay those fitting and well-becoming civilities and due regards to the Ambassadors of Foreign or Neighbour Potentates And may give us to understand that the honours given to Ambassadors do not conclude that there are no respects due to the Servants in ordinary of the Kings and Princes which sent them But that the honour and respect of the Kings manifested in the respect to their Servants is not the cause and foundation of that which is so punctually required and given to Ambassadors When it is as certain that great and often discontents and quarrels have been raised and kindled in the affairs and businesses not only of Nobility and men of great Estates and Eminency but of the vulgar and meaner sort of people for injuries done to their Servants who have been very unwilling to bear or put it up Which the Civil Law and the Custom of many Nations believed to be warranted by that Axiom or Rule that Domini pati dicuntur injurias qui suis fiunt servis Masters do partake and suffer in the injuries done to their Servants And amongst the Jews as their Rabbins expound their Laws were for the time they dwelt with them âundi instar as setled a Propriety as the Lands which they enjoyed From which our Laws of England do not dissent when they adjudged that injuriam patitur quis per alios quos habet in familia sua sicut per servientes servos in contumeliam suam fuerint verberati vulnerati vel imprisonati quatenus sua interfuerit operibus eorum non caruisse that a man may have wrong done him in those of his Family as in the reproach done unto him by the beating wounding or imprisoning of his Servants whereby he loseth their service A due consideration whereof and that the honour and respect of Kings is and ought to be manifested in the respect to their Servants probably was the cause which made William Walworth that valiant and brave Lord Mayor of London in the Reign of King Richard the second not able to withhold his loyal passion and indignation from knocking down with his Mace Wat Tyler the Rebel in the head of a mighty and unruly Army of Clowns for abusing and making Sir John Newton Knight one of the Kings Servants sent on a Message to him to stand bare before him on foot whilst he sate on horseback So as the people of England may in a less light than the New Lanthorn or Light men do now pretend unto discern a reason for a greater respect to be given unto the Kings Servants in Ordinary than of late they have given when it is to no other or no less than the Servants of Gods Vicegerent some of which enobled by their Birth or Creation others by their Offices Enobleissantaes enobling them as the Treasurer or Comptroller of the Kings most Honourable Houshold who when they do happen as many times not to be of the Nobility are ipso facto at the instant of the conserring those Offices upon them or shortly after made to be of the Kings Privy Councel and with the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England President of the Kings Councel Lord Privy Seal Great Chamberlain Constable Marshal and Admiral of England Great Master or Steward and Chamberlain of the Kings most Honourable Houshold have in this Kingdom as hath been used in other Nations been stiled the Officers of the Crown And our King Henry the 7th taking a care that his Servants should be as well born as virtuously educated did call and elect to the service and attendance of his Privy Chamber the Sons of his Nobility and Gentlemen of the best houses and alliance in most of the Shires of England and Wales And King Henry the 8th his Son did by his Ordinances for Regulation of his Houshold called the Statutes of Eltham made by the advice of his Privy Councel in the 17th year of his Reign command That no Servant be kept by any Officers within the Court under the degree of a Gentleman and that none be admitted into his Majesties service but sueh as be likely persons and fit for promotion and that it should be lawfull to all the Kings Counsellors the King and Queens Chamberlains Vice-Chamberlains and Captain of the Guard the Master of the Horse and Henchmen and the six Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber to keep every of them one Page to attend upon him in the Court so alwayes that he be a Gentleman born well apparelled and conditioned That the six Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber should be well languaged expert in outward parts and meet and able to be sent on familïar Messages or otherwise to outward Princes as the case shall require and charged the Great Officers of his Houshold in their several Offices and Places that none should be admitted into any Place within his House and especially those which beginning in low rooms and places and are accustomed by course to ascend into higher but such as be of good towardness likelihood behaviour demeanour and conversation and as nigh as they could should have respect that they be Personages of good gesture countenance fashion and stature so as the Kings House which is requisite to be the mirrour and example of all other within his Realm may be furnished of Ministers elect tryed and picked for the Kings Honour as to good reason and congruence doth appertain And by other Orders made in the 33th year of his Reign That no Officer of the Houshold should keep any Servant within the House under the degree of a Gentleman and such as should be honest and of good behaviour And by his Proclamation commanded That no Vagabonds Masterless Rascals or other Idle persons should come and harbour in the Court. And as he had a great respect for his Great Officers of State so he had no small one for his more inferiour Servants when in the Orders appointed for his Tables at meat in his Royal House he did ordain that the Lord Great Chamberlain at his three Messes of meat should have sitting with him the Vice-Chamberlain Captain of the Guard Cup-bearers Karvers Sewers to the King Esquires of the Body Gentlemen Huissers and Sewers of the Chamber The Master of the Horse to have the Equirries and Avenors to sit with him and Gentlemen Pensioners as many as can sit And Queen Elizabeth in the first and third year of her Reign intending as the Preamble thereof declared to follow the Godly and Honourable Statutes of Houshold of her Noble Progenitors did by her Proclamation streightly charge and command That
no Vagabonds Masterless men Boyes or Idle persons be suffered to harbour in her Court Wherfore the Servants attending therein should not now be so much in the ill opinion causeless contempt of the Mechanick and vulgar part of the people for those which are ex meliore luto better born and more civilly educated cannot certainly so lose their way to a gratefull acknowledgement of their Princes daily protection and needed favours as to villifie or slight his Servants by imitating the sordid examples of a less understanding part of the people or want their due respects if it shall be rightly considered that our Ancestors and a long succession of former ages were not so niggard or sparing of their well-deserved respects When our Kings and Princes and the wiser part of their people supposed to be in Parliament did attribute so much unto them and so very much trust and confide in them as they did from time to time put no small power into their hands and leave no small concernments of themselves and the Kingdom to their prudence fidelity and discretion When the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England who administreth the Oathes usually taken by the Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer of England Lords of the Kings most Honourable Privy Councel Chancellor of the Exchequer Master of the Rolls Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster Justices of the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas Barons of the Exchequer Kings Attorney and Sollicitor General Serjeants at Law Masters of Requests and Chancery upon and before their admission into their several Places and Offices nominates and appoints the Custos Rotulorum and Justices of the Peace in every County of England Wales some few Franchises and Liberties excepted and by his largely extended Jurisdiction committed unto his trust doth by the Writs remedial of his Soveraign guide and superintend the Cisterns and Streams of our Laws those living waters which do chear and refresh our Vallies and make them to be as a watered Garden And with the two Lord Chief Justices Master of the Rolls the other Reverend Judges and the Masters of Chancery appointed to distribute the Kings Justice according to the laws and reasonable customs of the Kingdome have their Robes and Salaries allowed and are as Justice Croke acknowledged in his argument against the Ship-money as the Kings Councel at Law the chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas being as is mentioned in a Manuscrip of Henry Earl of Arundel copyed out of a book of George Earl of Shrowsbury Lord Steward of the houshold unto King Henry the seventh and King Henry the eighth communicated unto me by my worthy friend Mr. Ralph Jackson one of his Majesties Servants in ordinary a great Member of the Kings house for whose favour counsel and assistance in the Law to be shewed to the houshold matters and servants he taketh an yearly Fee by the Bâtler of England of two Tuns of Wine at two Terms of the year which is allowed in the Court of houshold When the Justices of Peace in every City and County are or should be the under Wheels in that excellently curiously framed Watch of the English Government as the late blessed Martyr King Charles the first when he so sadly forwarned the pulling of it in pieces by a mistaken Parliament and the Rebellious consequences of it not unfitly called it are at their quarter Sessions under his pay and allowance when the Assize of the bread to be sold in England was in the fourth year of the Reign of King John being thirteen years before his granting of Magna Charta ordained by the King by his Edict or Proclamation to be strictly observed under the pain of standing upon the Pillory and the rates set and an Assise approved by the Baker of Jeoffry Fitz-Peter chief Justice of England the nas one of the Kings more especial Servants as to matters of justice resident and attendant in the Kings House or Palace and by the Baker of R. of Thurnam that Constitution and Assise being not at all contradicted by his Magna Charta or that of his Sons King Henry the 3 d. Which Assise of bread contained in a writing of the Marshalsea of the Kings house being by the consent of the whole Realm exemplified by the Letters Patents of King Henry the 3 d. in the 51 th year of his Raign was confirmed and said to be proved by the Kings Baker By an Act of Parliament made in the 9 th year of the Reign of that King if the King be out of the Realm the chief Justices one of which if not both were then residing and attending in the Kings Court were once in the year through every County with the Knights of the Shires to take Assises of Novel Disseisin and Mortdancester in which if there be any difficulty it was to be referred unto his Justices of the Bench there to be ended By an Act of Parliament made in the 6th year of the Reign of K. Edward the first Wine sold against the Assise was to be by the Mayor and Bayliffs of London presented before the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer who then resided in the Court or Palace of the King The Statute of Westminster the 2. made in the 13th year of the said Kings Reign mentioneth That the Kings Marshal is to appoint the Marshal of the Kings Bench and Exchequer the Criers and Virgers of that and the Court of Common Pleas which at this day is done by and under the Authority of the Earl Marshal of England who by his Certificate made by his Roll of a personal service in a Voyage Royal performed by those that held Lands or Offices in Capite and by Knight Service he discharged an Assessement of Esonage by Parliament superintendeth the cognisance and bearing of Armes of the Nobility and Gentry and the duty of the Heralds and Officers attending thereupon And with the Lord Great Chamberlain before the unhappy change of the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into Free and Common Socage introduce and bring unto the King such as were to do Homage unto him for their Baronies or Lands By an Act of Parliament made in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the third and by the Kings Authority the Sheriffs of every County in England and Wales who are for the most part under the King the only Executioners of Justice in the Kingdom are three out of six for every County presented by the Judges of every Circuit the morrow after the Feast of All-Souls in every year to the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer Lord Steward the later of which at the beginning and opening of Parliaments is by his Office to administer the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy to every Member of the House of Commons in Parliament the Master of the Horse Lord
Chamberlain Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings most Honourable Houshold Chancellor of the Exchequer with other of the Kings Privy Councel who together with the Justices of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer do out of the six for every County make choice of three who are in a written Bill by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England shortly after presented to the King who appointeth as he pleaseth one of every three presented unto him as aforesaid for every County to be Sheriff by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal for the year next following And by Authority of the King and his Laws the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England appointeth the Judges in every year their several Circuits maketh and dischargeth all Justices of the Peace And such Petitions as could not be dispatched before the end of Parliaments were frequently adjourned to be heard and determined by the Chancellor and presenteth to all Parsonages or Spiritual Benefices in the Kings right or gift which are under the value of 20 l. per annum according to the antient valuation All the Records in the Courts of Chancery Kings Bench and Common Pleas Justices of Assise and Goal delivery are to be safely kept by the Treasurer and Chamberlains of the Exchequer which the Commons of England in Parliament in the 46th year of the Reign of King Edward the third did in their Petition to the King call the Peoples perpetual evidence and our Kings of England have therefore in several of their Reigns sent their Writs and Mandates to the Chief Justices of both the Benches to cause their Records for some times therein limited to be brought into his Treasury and entrusted with the Treasurer and Chamberlains thereof in whose custody the Standard for all the Weights and Measures of England is likewise kept By an Act of Parliament made in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the third Sheriffs abiding above one year in their Offices may be removed and new ones put in their place by the Chancellor Treasurer and Chief Baron of the Exchequer taking unto them the Chief Justices of the one Beneh or the other if they be present Escheators who were and should be of very great trust and concernment in the Kingdom betwixt the King and his people were to be chosen by the Chancellor Treasurer and Chief Baron of the Exchequer taking into them the Chief Justices of the one Bench or the other if they be present but are since only made by the Lord Treasurer By a Statute made in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. the Lord Privy Seal and other great Lords of the Kings Councel are appointed to redress in Parliament delayes and errours in Judgement in other Courts By an Act of Parliament made in the 20th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King the Chancellor and Treasurer were authorized to hear complaints and ordain remedies concerning gifts and rewards unjustly taken by Sheriffs Bayliffs of Franchises and their Vnder Ministers and also concerning mainteiners and embracers of Juries taking unto them the Justices and other Sage persons such as to them seemeth meet By an Act of Parliament made in the 31th year of the Reign of that King the Lord Chancellor and Treasurer shall examine erronious Judgements given in the Exchequer Chamber And the Chancellor and Treasurer taking to them Justices and other of the Kings Councel as to them seemeth shall take order and make Ordinances touching the buying and selling of Fish By several Acts of Parliament made in the 37th and 38th year of his Reign Suggestions made by any to the King shall be sent with the party making them unto the Chancellor there to be heard and determined and the Prosecutor was to be punished if he prove them not And that upon untrue suggestions the Chancellor should award damages according to his discretion By an Act of Parliament made in the 11th year of the Reign of King Richard the second the keeping of Assises in good Towns are at the request of the Commons in Parliament referred to the Chancellor with the advice of the Judges By an Act of Parliament made in the 13th year of his Reign in every pardon for Felony Murder or Treason the Chamberlain or Vnder Chamberlain was to endorse upon the Bill the Name of him which sued for the same By an Act of Parliament made in the 20th year of his Reign no man shall go or ride armed except the Kings Officers or Ministers in doing their Office By an Act of Parliament made in the first and second year of the Reign of K. Henry the 4th no Lord is to give any Sign or Livery to any Knight Esquire or Yeoman but the King may give his honourable Livery to his menial Knights and Esquires and also to his Knights and Esquires of his Retinue who are not to use it in their Counties but in the Kings presence The Constable and Marshall of England for the time being and their Retinue of Knights and Esquires may wear the Livery of the King upon the Borders and Marches of the Realm in time of War the Knights and Esquires of every Duke Earl Baron or Baneret may wear their Liveries in going from the Kings House and returning unto it and that the King may give his honourable Livery to the Lords Temporal whom pleaseth him And that the Prince and his menials may use and give his honourable Livery to the Lords and his menial Gentlemen By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King Henry the 6th the Lords of the Councel may assign money to be coyned in as many places as they will A Letter of request may be granted by the Keeper of the Privy Seal to any of the Kings Subjects from whom Goods be taken by the King of Denmark or any of his Subjects By an Act of Parliament made in the tenth year of his Reign the Mayor of London shall take his Oath before the Treasurer of England and Barons of the Kings Exchequer wherein he shall be charged and sworn to observe all the Statutes touching Weights and Measures By an Act of Parliament made in the eleventh year of his Reign Fees Wages and Rewards due to the Kings Officers were not to be comprized within the Statute of Resumption made in the 28 th year of the Reign of the King By an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Reign of King Henry the 7th for punishments of Maintenance Embracery Perjuries Riots and unlawfull demeanors of Sheriffs and unlawfull Assemblies it was ordained That the Chancellor and Treasurer of England for the time being Keeper of the Kings Privy Seal or two of them calling unto them a Bishop and a Temporal Lord of the Kings most Honourable Councel and the two Chief Justices of the Kings
Bench and Common Pleas for the time being or other two Justices in their absence may upon Bill or Information put to the said Chancellor for the King or any other have authority to call before them by Writ or Privy Seal the said misdoers By an Act of Parliament made in the 12th year of his Reign Perjury committed by unlawfull maintenance embracing or corruption of Officers in the Chancery or before the Kings Councel shall be punished by the discretion of the Lord Chancellor Treasurer both the Chief Justices and the Clerk of the Rolls and if the Complainant prove not or pursue not his Bill he shall yield to the party wronged his costs and damages By an Act of Parliament made in the 19th year of his Reign Ordinances made by Fellowships of Crafts are to be approved by the Chancellor Treasurer of England Chief Justice of either Benches or three of them or both the Justices of Assise in their Circuits where such Ordinances shall be made By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper may appoint two three or four persons to receive Toll or Custome and to imploy the same upon the repair of the Bridge of Stanes in the County of Middlesex and to yield accompt thereof By an Exception in an Act of Parliament made in the 14th and 15th year of his Reign touching Aliens and their taking of Apprentices any Lord of the Parliament may take and retain Estrangers Joyners and Glasiers in their service In the Act of Parliament made in the 21th year of his Reign prohibiting Plurality of Benefices and the taking of Farms under great penalties there are Exceptions for the Kings Chaplains not sworn of his Councel and of the Queen Prince or Princess and the Kings Children Brothers Sisters Vnkles or Aunts the eight Chaplains of every Archbishop six of every Duke five of every Marquess and Earl four of every Viscount and other Bishop the Chancellor and every Baron of England three of every Dutchess Marquioness Countess and Baroness being Widdows And that the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings House the Kings Secretary Dean of his Chappel the Kings Almoner and Master of the Rolls may have every one of them two Chaplains the Chief Justice of the Kings Bench one Chaplain the Warden of the Cinqueports for the time being the Brethren and Sons of all Temporal Lords may keep as many Benefices with Cure as the Chaplains of a Duke or Archbishop and the Brethren and Sons of every Knight may keep two Parsonages or Benefices with Cure of Souls And that the Widdows of every Duke Marquess Earl or Baron which shall take to Husband any man under the degree of a Baron may take such number of Chaplains as they might when they were Widdows and every such Chaplain have the priviledge aforesaid By an Act of Parliament made in the same year and Parliament a Commission was granted to Cutbert Bishop of London Sir Richard Brooke Knight Chief Baron of the Exchequer John More one of the Justices of the Kings Bench c. to assign how many Servants every Stranger shall keep within St. Martins le Grand London By an Act of Parliament made in the 23th year of his Reign Commissioners of Sewers to survey Streams Gutters Letts and Annoyances are to be named by the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer and two Chief Justices or any three of them and their Decree to bind the Kings and all mens Lands By an Act of Parliament made in the same year and Parliament the prices of the Tun Butt Pipe and Hogshead of French Wines Sack Malmsey shall be assessed by the Kings Great Officers By an Act of Parliament made in the 25th year of his Reign Butter Cheese Capons Hens Chickens and other Victuals necessary for mens sustenance are upon complaint of enhancing to be assessed by the Lord Chancellor of England Lord Treasurer the Lord President of the Kings most Honourable Privy Councel the Lord Privy Seal the Lord Steward the Lord Chamberlain and all other Lords of the Kings Councel the Treasurer and the Comptroller of the Kings most Honourable House the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Kings Justices of either Bench the Chancellor Chamberlains Vnder-Treasurer and the Barons of the Kings Exchequer or seven of them at the least whereof the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Councel or the Lord Privy Seal to be one By another Act of Parliament made in the same year and Parliament the prices of Books upon complaint made unto the King are to be reformed by the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer or any of the Chief Justices of the one Bench or the other by a Jury or otherwise By another Act of Parliament made in the same year and Parliament every Judge of the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas the Chancellor and Chief Baron of the Exchequer the Kings Attorney and Sollicitor for the time being may have one Chaplain who may be absent from his Benefice and not resident By an Act of Parliament made in the 28th year of the Reign the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings most Honourable Councel Lord Privy Seal and the two Chief Justices of either Bench or any four or three of them are impowered by their discretions to set the prices of all Wines by the Butt Tun Pipe Hogshead Puncheon Tearce Barrel or Rundlet the pint of French Wine being then set at 1 d. per pinte By an Act of Parliament made in the 33th year of his Reign the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster Courts of Augmentations and First-Fruits Master of the Wards and Liveries Treasurer of the Kings Chamber and Treasurer of the Court of Augmentation and Groom of the Stool may each of them retain one Chaplain who may be absent from their Benefices provided they be twice a year at their Benefices with Cure of Souls by the space of eight dayes at a time By an Act of Parliament made in the 34th and 35th year of his Reign the Lords authorized by the Statute of 28 H. 8. cap. 14. to set the prices of Wines in gross may mitigate and enhance the prices of Wines to be sold by retail By an Act of Parliament made in the 37th year of his Reign for the settlement of Tithes betwixt the Parsons Vicars and Curates of London and the Inhabitants thereof the Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Councel Lord Privy Seal Lord Great Chamberlain of England with some of the Judges were chosen Arbitrators to make a final conclusion betwixt them which shall be binding by their Order under any six of their hands By an Act of Parliament made in the same year the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Councel Lord Privy Seal and the two Chief Justices or
three four or five of them are yearly to set the prices of Wines And upon refusal to sell after those rates the Mayor Recorder and two antient Aldermen of the City of London not being Vintners shall enter into their Houses and sell their Wines according to those rates By an Act of Parliament made in the 7th year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th no person having not Lands or Tenements or which cannot dispend above 100 Marks per annum or is not worth 1000 Marks in Goods or Chattels not being the Son of a Duke Marquess Earl Viscount or Baron shall keep in his house any greater quantities of French Wines then 10. Gallons By an Act of Parliament made in the same year the offenders in the Assise of Wood and Fuell if they be poor and not able to pay the Forfeiture may be by a Justice of Peace or any other of the Kings Officers put on the Pillory By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of Queen Mary if the Justices of Peace do not put the Act of Parliament in execution touching the repair of the Causway betwixt Sherborn and Shaftsbury in the Counties of Dorset and Somerset the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper shall upon request grant Commissions to certain discreet persons to do it And by an Act of Parliament made in the 43th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the mis-imployment of Lands Goods Chattels or Money given to Hospitals and Charitable uses are to be reformed by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster for the time being in their several Jurisdictions Which amongst many other may be some of the causes or reasons that the People of England and Commons in Parliament giving in former times as they ought to do those grand and more then ordinary respects and many more not here repeated unto the Great Officers of the Crown Royal Houshold and other the Servants of our Kings and Princes and lodging so many of their grand concernments in their care and trust did not trouble themselves or any of our Parliaments with any Petitions there being none to be found amongst the Records thereof against those antient rational just and legal Priviledges of the Kings Servants in Ordinary nor any Lord Steward Lord Chamberlain or other Officers of the Kings most Honourable House for allowing or maintaining it although there were some against Protections granted to some that were not the Kings Servants in Ordinary nor hath there been any Statute or Act of Parliament made to take away or so much as abridge those well deserved Priviledges which have in all ages and by so good warrant of right reason Laws of Nations and the Laws and reasonable Customes of this Kingdom appeared to be so much conducing to the Weal publique and the affairs and business of the Head or Soveraign For surely if there had been but the least suspicion of any Grievance in them meriting a remedy there would not have been such a silence of the peoples Petitioning or Complaints against it either by themselves or their vigilant and carefull Representatives in the Commons House in Parliament which heretofore seldom or never omitted the eager pursuit and Hue and Cry after any thing of Grievance which molested them And if there had been any such Petitions and Complaints in Parliament that Great and Honourable Court not giving any order or procuring any Act of Parliament against the Priviledges of the Kings Servants is and may be a convincing argument that such Complaints or pretended Grievances were causeless unfitting or not deserving the remedies required and will be no more an evidence or proof against what is here endeavoured to be asserted then the Petition of the Commons in Parliament in the 21th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. against the payment of 6 d. for the seal of every Original Writ in Chancery and 7 d. for the sealing of the Writs of the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas which hath ever since been adjudged reasonable and fitting to be paid then the many Petitions against the antient legal and rational payment of Fines upon Original Writs in Chancery then the Petitions of Non-conforming Ministers then the many designed and desired Acts of Parliament not found to be reasonable or convenient and therefore laid by and miscarried in the Embrios or multitudes of other Petitions in our Parliaments or then the many late Petitions for an imaginary liberty of Conscience can or will be for what was desired and not thought fit at those or any other times to be granted Which antient Priviledge of the Kings Servants not to be Arrested without leave was not so limited to their Persons but that their Lands Estates and Goods participated also of that Privilege not to be molested by any Process or Suit of Law without Licence first obtained of the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings most honourable Houshold or unto such other great Officers therein to whose Jurisdiction it belonged CAP. IV. That the Priviledges and Protections of the Kings Servants in Ordinary by reason of his Service is and ought to be extended unto the Priviledged parties Estate both Real and Personal as well as unto their persons FOr if we may as we ought believe antiquity and its many unquestionable authorities and our Records which as to matters of fact judgements pleas writs therein allowed Records of Parliament and the Grants of our Kings by their Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England being the Publique Faith of the Kingdome from and under which most of the peoples Real Estates and Priviledges have had their originals and establishments not the falsely called Publique Faith which afterwards proved to be Bankrupt and was until then the Medea or Witch of the late incomparably wicked Rebellion were alwayes so impartial and credited as not to have their truth so much as suspected That Priviledge was not only indulged and allowed to their Persons but to their Lands and Estate also as will plainly appear by the course and Custome of the Law in former ages and amongst many others not here enumerated was not understood to have been either unusual or illegal in that which was granted to Sir John Staunton Knight By King Edward the 3 d. in the 29th year of his Raign in these words Omnibus ad quos c. Salutem considerantes grata laudabilia obsequia tam nobis quam Isabellae Reginae Angliae Matris nostrae charissimae per dilectum fidelem nostrum Johannem-de Staunton impensa proinde Volentes personam ipsius Johannis suis condignis meritis exigentibus honorare ipsum Johannem Camerae nostrae militem familiarem quoad vixerit tam tempore quo extra curiam nostram absens quam tempore quo ibidem presens fuerit duximus retinendum Ac de gratia nostra speciali ipsum Johannem Terras Tenementa
Castri praedicti in the Kings Service in fortifying the Castle of Oye in Picardy under the command of John Lardner Captain of the Castle aforesaid was Utlawed by Process out of the Court of Common Pleas at the Suit of John Paxman in an Action of Debt for Forty pounds when as die promulgationis Vtlagarie diu antea postea fuit in obsequio Domini Regis at the time of his being Utlawed and long before and after he was in the Kings Service as aforesaid and brought his Writ of Error in the Kings Bench to reverse it prayed a Writ to the Captain aforesaid to certifie whether he was then in obsequio Regis in the Kings Service per quod mandatum fuit praedicto Capitaneo whereupon it was commanded to the aforesaid Captain to certifie quo die anno what year and day the said Roger was imployed as aforesaid per quantum tempus ibidem remansit in obsequio Regis in Comitiva sua continue quo die anno recessit and how long he there served without intermission and what day and year he departed whereupon he giving Bayl by four Sureties to appear ad praefatum terminum sic de die in diem quousque c. at the term or time appointed and so from day to day untill he should be discharged And the Captain certifying the day when the said Roger came into the Kings Service and when he departed the said Roger prayed a Writ of Scire facias to warn or summon the said John Paxman to appear and hear the Error alledged and the Sheriff not having executed the first Scire facias and a second being awarded executed and retorned and the said John Paxman not appearing the said Roger assigned for Error that he was in obsequio Regis in the Kings Service as aforesaid and prayed that the Utlary might be reversed for the Error aforesaid quod Curia ad examinationem recordi processus ex officio procedat and that the Court would as they ought proceed to examine the Record and Process aforesaid which being considered and examined the Court ob Errorem illum alios in recordo processu compertos for that and other Errors appearing in the Record and Process aforesaid did reverse and annull the said Utlary And in the 9th year of the Reign of the said King a man being Utlawed for Felony which is of a worse nature and consequence then in an Action of Debt did reverse that Utlary upon a Certificate that he was in the Kings Service at Burdeaux in France at the time of the Utlary pronounced and in the second year of the Reign of King Edward the 4th a man taken upon a Capias Vtlagatum for Felony pleaded that at the time of the Utlary pronounced he was in the Kings Service at Calais under the Governour or Captain thereof which being certified was allowed when in all cases of Vtlary the Judges of Courts and the Kings Serjeants or Councel at Law were alwayes not a little watchfull to preserve all the Kings Rights and advantages For if upon a command of the King by his Letters Patents to do any of his commands or affairs which kind of Authority certainly the Kings Servants in ordinary neither need or ever demanded or the party impleaded alleaging that he served at Calais under such a Captain shall be sufficient Pleas to avoid Vtlaries the one as was adjudged and holden for Law in the 11th year of the Reign of King Henry the 7th in the Kings Bench being to be tryed by the Certificate of the Captain and the other by the Kings Letters Patents And the party Vtlawed shall have a Writ of Scire facias without shewing the Kings Letters Patents unless the Plaintiff do traverse it as well as in the other Case he shall be discharged of the Vtlary by the Certificate of the Captain the Certificate certainly in the Case of an Houshold Servant of the Kings of the Lord Chamberlain or other Great Officer of the Houshold to whom it appertaineth may deserve to be as available And yet in all the aforesaid Cases of Protection or Priviledge they that were abiding within the Realm might ever since the making of the Statute in the 20th year of the Reign of King Henry the third and of the Statute made in the 13th year of the Reign of King Edward the first and such as departed the Realm by the Kings license by an Act of Parliament or Statute made in the 7th year of the Reign of King Richard the second make their Attorneys to answer for them in any Actions to be brought against them And if in case of less consequence or upon a smaller ground of Law or Reason the Law hath so much favoured a privare person as to permit him to reverse an Vtlary because he was itae languidus tempore promulgationis Vtlagarie so sick at the time of the pronouncing or adjudging him to be Vtlawed that he could not propter periculum mortis appear without danger of death when as he might have made or sent his Attorney as it was adjudged and admitted in the 4th year of the Reign of King Henry the 5th the Kings Servants should in matters so very much concerning his Person and the Weal publick not be debarred of their plea of a greater impediment by their necessary attendance upon the person of their Soveraign All which may certainly give us to understand and perswade every one that wilfully gives not way to his fancies and misapprehensions to over-run and trample upon his reason that the Priviledge of the Kings Servants in ordinary had its beginning and continuance as well from the necessity of their attendance upon his person and affairs as from the respect and honour which was and should be alwayes due unto the King their Master And that therefore if the Laws and reasonable Customs of England do as they have ever done and by a right interpretation of them are alwayes to be understood will not permit that the Kings Servants in ordinary may be arrested in any Civil Action without the leave or license of the King or the great Officers of his most honourable Houshold under whose jurisdiction they do officiate first obtained nor suffer any Member of the House of Commons in Parliament in the time of Parliament whilst he is in the service of their King and Country to be outlawed because he cannot be Utlawed without Process of three Capiasses of Writs to arrest an Exigent Proclamation first awarded returned against him such Writs or Process could not be awarded during the against him continuance or adjournment of Parliament It may justly rationally and legally be concluded that they cannot be Utlawed Until there can be an Utlary without a Capias or Process of Arrest a Capias without leave or licence first obtained of the great Officer of the Kings most honourable Houshold to whom it appertaineth and
as the Court of Chancery did in the 8th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth by her Writ supersede stay 2 Writs of Exigent in the Court of Common-Pleas at the Suit of two several persons against Robert Webb one of the Cursitors of the Court of Chancery by reason of his Office Attendance in that Court which Writ of Priviledge and Supersedeas was allowed by the Judges of that Court and an entry made upon the Roll where the Plea of his Priviledge was entred in these words Ideo consideratum est quod praedictus Robertus libertatibus privilegis praedictis gaudeat Ac separalia brevia praedicta ei conceduntur therefore it is ordered that the said Robert VVebbe shall enjoy his Liberties and Priviledges and that several Writs as a foresaid be granted unto him probably Writs of Supersedeas to the Sheriffs of London unto whom the Writs of Exigent had been before sent and directed or as the Court of Chancery hath done in the ninth year of the Reign of King James in the Case of Valentine Saunders Esquire one of the Six Clarkes of that Court require by the Kings Writs the Justices of the Court of Common-Pleas to surcease the prosecution of the said Valentine Saunders to the Utlary or might aswell defend their Regal Rights in the case of their Servants in Ordinary by a Writ de Rege inconsulto commanding as in some other cases of their concernments not to proceed against them until their pleasure be further signified or assert and command the Liberties Priviledges of their Servants by Writs de libertate allocanda aswell as for Liberties to be allowed unto Citizens or Burgers which contrary to their Liberties were impleaded But too many of the Kings Servants Creditors for all are not so uncivil who would be glad to find a way or some colour or pretence of Law rudely to treat the Rights of the King and his Servants would willingly underprop that their humour and design with an objection that our Kings have conveyed their Justice unto their established Courts of Justice at Westminster and are not to contradict alter or suspend any thing which they do in his name therein And that if any of the Kings Servants in Ordinary be arrested without leave the King or the great Officers of his Houshold may not punish those that do offend therein and that being so Arrested they are so in the Custody of the Law as they ought not to be released until they do appear or give Bayl to appear and answer the Action CAP. VI. That the Kings established and delegated Courts of Justice to administer Justice to his People are not to be any bar or hinderance to his Servants in Ordinary in their aforesaid antient just and legal Priviledges and Rights or that the Messengers of his Majesties Chamber may not be sent to summon or detein in custody the Offenders therein or that any of his servants being arrested without licence are so in the custody of the Law as they cannot before apparance or bayl to the Action be delivered WHich will not at all advantage their hopes or purposes if they shall besides what hath been already proved aswell as alledged give Admittance unto a more weighed consideration that delegatio ad causas non intelligitur ad futuras a Commission or Authority entrusted for some special or determinate matters is not to be understood to extend unto all that in the administration of Justice may afterwards happen that in the Court of Exchequer the Barons are and should be the special Ministers and Supervisors of the Kings Revenue subject to his Legal Mandates and disposing power that the Court of Common-Pleas being a Court erected and continued by our Kings for the dispatch of Justice and ease of their Subjects and People in Common-Pleas or Actions wherein the King his Crown and Dignity are not immediately concerned do only hold Pleas and have Jurisdiction and Cognisance ratione Mandati by reason of the Kings Original Writs Command or Commission issuing almost in every Action from himself out of his High Court of Chancery that the Justices of the Kings-Bench are ad placita coram Rege tenenda assignati assigned as coadjutors to the King to hear determine Pleas supposed by Law to be heard before himself in that Court and by the ancient stile title of their Records said to be de consilio Regis of the Kings Councel that in the High Court of Chancery the King by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England as his Substitute or Deputy as some of our Judges in the 9th year of the Reign of King James have believed them to be in that supereminent and superintendant Court of and over all his other Courts of Justice commands his Sheriffs who are sworn to execute his Writs and not to prejudice his Rights to execute their Writs directed unto them in his Name and under his Seal doth provide and give remedies in all emergencies of Law and Justice where the Supreme and Legal Authority is implored or prayed in ayd or assistance And that where a Delegated Power or Jurisdiction is granted by the King as not only the Lawes of many other Nations but our Bracton and Fleta men not meanly learned in the antient Laws and Customes of England as well as in the civil Laws have adjudged he doth not exuere sede potestate so grant away that Jurisdiction as to exclude himself from all power and not be able upon just and legal Occasions to resume it or intermeddle in some part thereof when a Lord of a Mannor though he hath by a Patent or Commission granted to his Steward for life the power or jurisdictions of keeping his Courts assessing of Fines and the like matters appurtenant thereunto is not debarr'd when a just occasion shal either necessitate or invite him thereunto from his personal assessing of Fines or other Acts belonging unto the Court or that power authority which he should have over his Tenants that where the Liberty of a Court Baron appurtenant to the Grant of a Mannor with the jurisdiction of Sake or Soke holding of Pleas and punishment of Offenders is granted by the King or allowed to any man and his heirs by Custome or Prescription the King is not debarred upon any grievance or complaint of any Tenant of the Manor to command Justice to be done unto him by his Writs of Right Close or Patent and where a Leet being a more large or greater Jurisdiction hath been granted to a man and his heirs to seize and grant it to another for not rightly observing the order of Law therein as for not erecting a Pillory making of a Clerk of the Market and the like or altogether disusing of it and where liberties of retorna Brevum executing returning Writs in a certain Precinct or Liberty have been granted to a man his Heirs common practice and
course of Law its Process may inform us that the King hath notwithstanding such a power superintendency of Justice inherent in him over all the Courts of Justice high or low in the Kingdome as upon the Sheriffs retorn quod mandavit Ballivo libertatis that he made his Warrant to the Bayliff of such a Liberty to arrest such a Defendant and that the Bayliff nullam sibi dedit responsionem had made him no retorn nor answer he may thereupon by his Justices cause a Writ to be made to the Sheriff commanding him quod non omittat propter aliquam libertatem Ballivi libertatis c. quin capiat that he do not omit to enter into the said Bayliffs liberty and arrest the Defendant and may also when a Defendant is outlawed cause at the instance of the Plaintiff a Capias Vtlegat Writ to be made to take arrest the utlawed person with a non omittas propter aliquam libertatem power and authority to enter into any Liberty under the name of his Attorney General as an Officer intrusted with the making of the said Writs of Capias Vtlegatum and that Offices either granted by the King for term of Life or in Fee or Fee-Tayle are forfeitable by a Misuser or non user by not executing that part of the Kings Justice committed to the care and trust of the Officers thereof And so necessary was the Kings Supreme Authority heretofore esteemed to be in the execution and administration of Justice as in the Case between the Prior of Durham and the Bishop of Durham in the 34th year of the Reign of King Edward the first where amongst other things an information was brought in the Kings-Bench against the Bishop for that he had imprisoned the Kings Officers or Messengers for bringing Writs into his Liberty to the prejudice as he thought thereof and that the Bishop had said that nullam deliberationem de eisdem faceret sed dixit quod ceteros per ipsos castigaret ne de cetero literas Domini Regis infra Episcopatum suum portarent in Lesionem Episcâpatus ejusdem he would not release them but would chastise them or any other which hereafter should bring any of the Kings Letters or Writs within his Bishoprick to the prejudice of the Liberties thereof And in the entring up and giving the Judgment upon that Information and Plea saith the Record Quia idem Episcopus cum libertatem praedictam a Corona exeuntem Dependentem habeat per factum Regis in hoc minister Domini Regis est ad ea quae ad Regale pertinent infra eandem libertatem loco ipsius Regis modo debito conservanda exequenda Ita quod omnibus singulis ibidem justitiam exhibere ipsi Regi ut Domino suo mandatis parere debeat prout tenetur licet proficua expletia inde provenientia ad usum proprium per factum praedictum percipiatur in regard that when the Bishop had the liberty aforesaid by the Kings Grant or Charter from the Crown and depending thereupon he is in that as a Servant or Minister of the Kings concerning those things which do belong unto the Kings Regality within the Liberty aforesaid to execute and preserve it in a due manner for and on the behalf of the King so as there he is bound to do Justice to all men and to obey the King and his Commands as his Lord and Soveraign although he do by the Kings Grant or Charter take and receive the profit arising and coming thereby Wherein the Judges and Sages of the Law as in those Ancient Times they did not unfrequently in matters of great concernment have given us the reason of their Judgment in these words Cum potestas Regia per totum Regnum tam infra libertates praedictas quam extra se extendant videtur Curiae toti Consilio Domini Regis quod hujusmodi imprisonamenta facta de hiis qui capti fuerunt occasione quod brevia Domini Regis infra libertatem praedictam tulerint simul cum advocatione acceptatione facti Et etiam dictis quae idem Episcopus dixit de Castigatione illorum qui brevia Regis extunc infra libertatem suam portârent manifeste perpetrata fuerunt when as the power and authority of the King doth extend it self through all the Kingdome as well within Liberties as without it seemed to the Court and all the Kings Counsel that such imprisonments made of those which brought the Kings Writs within the Liberty aforesaid the Bishops justifying and avowing of the Fact and the Words which the Bishop said That he would punish all such as should bring any Writs to be executed in his Liberty were plainly proved Et propterea ad inobedientiam exhaereditationem Coronae ad diminutionem Dominii potestatis Regalis Ideo consideratum est quod idem Episcopus libertatem praedictam cujus occasione temerariam sibi assumpsit audacim praedicta gravamina injurias excessus praedictos perpetrandi dicendi toto tempore suo amittat Cum in eo quo quis deliquit sit de Jure puniendus Et eadem libertas Capiatur in manus Domini Regis Et Nihâlominus corpus praedicti Episcopi capiatur Wherefore because it tended to disobedience and a disherison of the Crown and diminution of the Kings Power and Authority It was adjudged that the Bishop for his rash presumption and boldness and for committing the aforesaid wrongs and injuries should forfeit his Liberty aforesaid for that every man is to be punished according to the nature of his offence And it was ordered That the Liberty should be seized and taken into the Kings hands and that the Body of the Bishop notwithstanding should be taken into Custody For the Kings Justice to which his Coronation Oath is annexed is inseparable from his Person so fixed to his Diadem and Regal Authority as it is not to be absolutely or any more then conditionally deputed and intrusted to any other or otherwise then with a reserve of the last Appeal and his Superiority and therefore King Edward the first in some of his Writs Commissions or Precepts saith that he but not his Judges was Deâitor Justitiae so a Debtor to Justice as not to deny it to any of his People complaining of the want of it and ad nos pertinet the care thereof belongeth to the King and to that end appointed his high Court of Chancery and his Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and required all the Officers Clerks of that Court to take care that pro defectu Justitiae nullus recedat a Cancellaria sine Remedio no man for want of Justice do go away from the Chancery destitute of remedy from whence also lyes an Appeal to the King himself in Parliament and in the Case of Sir William Thorpe Chief Justice of England in the 24th year of the Reign of King Edwardâ the third being put
not to proceed in matters concerning his own particular without his being first consulted de Attornato languidi recipiendo to admit an Attorney for one that is sick Writs of Aââaint against Jurors falsly swearing in their Verdicts Writs de Aâsisa continuanda to continue the prââââdings upon an Assise Audita querela to relieve one that is oppressed by some Judgment Statute or Recognisance Writs de Certioraâi de tenâre Indictamenti to be certified of the Tenor of an Indictment de Vtlagaria of an Utlary de tenore pedis Finis of the Tenor of the Foot of a Fine mittendo tenorem Assise in Evââentiam to send the Tenor of a Writ of Assise into the Chancery to be from thence transmitted by a Copy for Evidence into the Court of Exchequer Writs quod Justitiarii procedant ad captionem Assise impowring the Justices of Assise to procede in the taking of an Assise and his Commissions frequently granted in some special cases as Dedimus potestatem impowring the Judges or others to take the acknowledgements of Fines with many other kinds of Commissions a posse Comitatus ad vim Laicam amovendam to remove a force where a Parson or Minister is to be inducted into a Church or Benefice Commissions granted ob lites dirimendas to compose contentious suites of Law where the poverty of one of the parties is not able to endure them and the granting of a priviledge by some of our antient Kings to the Bishop and Citizens of new Sarum or Salisbury that the Iudges of Assize or Itinerants should in their circuits hold the Pleas of the Crown at that Town or City which King Edward the first did by his Writ or Mandates allow or cause to be observed and many more which might be here instanced which with the Laws and practice thereof and the reasonable customes of England do every where and abundantly evidence that the King doth not intrust his Courts of Justice or the Judges thereof with all his Regal power and all that with which he is himself invested in his politique capacity or hath so totally conveyed it unto them as to make them thereby the only dispensers of his justice but that the appeal or dernier ressort from all his Courts of Iustice is and resides in the King being the ultimate supreme Magistrate as from the inferiour Courts of Iustice in the Counties or Cities to the Superiour Courts of Iustice at Westminster-hall from the Court of Common-Pleas by Writ of Error to the Court called the Kings-Bench from that Court to the Parliament And as to some matters of Law fit to be tryed by action at Law from the Chancery unto the Kings-Bench or Courts of Common-Pleas or Exchequer reserving the equity when what was done there shall be returned and certified and even from the Parliament it self when Petitions there nepending could not in regard of their important affairs be dispatched to the high Court of Chancery and that appeals are made to the King in his high Court of Chancery from the Admiralty Court when as the process and proceedings are in the Name and under the Seal of the Lord Admiral and from the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury for proving of Wills and granting of Administration when the Process and proceedings are not in the Kings name but in the name and under the Seal of that Arch-bishop So as the Gentlemen of the long Robe who in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr argued against the Kings Prerogative for the just liberties of the people of England in the case of the Habeas Corpora's when they affirmed the meaning of the Statute made in the third year of the Reign of King Edward the first where there was an Exception of such not to be Baylable as were committed by the command of the King or of his Justices to be that the Kings command was to be understood of his commands by his Writs or Courts of justice might have remembred that in former times his Authority by word of mouth or in things done in his presence in matters just and legal not contradicting the established rules customes and courses of his Courts of Justice and the power and authority wherewith our Kings have intrusted them was accompted to be as valid if not more than any thing done in his Courts of Justice witness that notable record and pleading aforesaid betwixt the Prior and Bishop of Durham in the 34 th year of the Reign of that by his own and his Fathers troubles largely experienced King Edward the first which was not long after the making of that Statute concerning such as were to be bayled or not to be bayled where it was said and not denyed to be Law quod Ordinatio meaning an award or something acknowledged in the presence of the King in praesentia Regis facta per ipsum Regem affirmata majorem vini habere debet quam finis in Curia sua coram justitiariis suis levatus that any Ordinance or acknowledgment made in the Kings presence and by him affirmed was to be more credited and to have a greater force then a Fine levied before his Justices in his Courts of Justice which may be a good Foundation and Warrant for several agreements and Covenants made betwixt private persons and ratified by the King under his Great Seal of England by inspeximus and confirmations by his allowance and being witness thereunto as that of Rorger Mortimer Lord of Wigmore with Robert de Vere Earl of Oxford for the Honor and Earldome of Oxfârd and the great Estate and Revenueâbelonging thereunto forfeited by the said Earl in taking part with the Barons against King Henry the third and many others which might be instanced and are plentifully to be found in many Agreements and Covenants made betwixt Abbots and Priors and their Covents and divers of the English Nobility and great men mentioned in Master Dugdales first and second Tomes or Parts of his Monasticon Anglicanum For it was resolved in Easter Term in the fourth year of the raign of Queen Elizabeth by the then Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas the Lord Chief Baron and Whiddon Browne and Corbet Justices Carus the Queens Serjeant and Gerrard her Attorney General upon a question put unto them by the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England that in case of Piracy or other the like crimes the Queen might in the intervals or vacancy of a Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England by a necessity of doing Justice without a Commission granted unto others to do it punish such offenders although the Statute made in the 28th year of the raign of King Henry the 8th Ca. 15th doth direct Piracy to be tryed by Commission And it was allowed to be Law in a Case put by King James that where an Affray or Assault was made by any in the Kings presence the King
unto the Court and submit himself unto the Law which he did and was put to his fine gave sureties to pay it Which proofs and arguments touching the subordination of the Judges or their Courts of Justice are not nor ever were intended for the reverend Judges and Sages of the Law or the Students Professors and Practisers thereof whose learning and Judgments neither scrupled or needed it but unto those vulgar and mechanick busie headed and unquiet part of the People qui nesciunt se ignorare will not own any ignorance when they are most ignorant but will be sure to dislike every thing which they do not understand because they take their measures by the shortlines of their vulgar take and incomprehensive capacities which makes them to be so restless and unsatisfied in their mistakings and so lincked and wedded unto them I had not been so large in clearing that particular which unto some may seem more then requisite but that it may justly be feared that those opinions or impressions if not disâodged and fully convinced may as those long agoe condemned Heresies and Errors in the Church did in our late distractions and distempers rise up again under the pretence of new notions and gain a kind of Succession too like a perpetuity And therefore every man may without any the Incumbrances of doubts or controversies be assured CHAP. VII That the King or the great Officers of his Houshold may punish those that doe infringe his servants priviledges and that any of the Kings Servants in Ordinary being arrested without leave are not so in the custody of the Law as they ought not to be released untill they do appear or give Bayl to Appear and Answer the Action WHen it must or should be acknowledged that notwithstanding that by the Statutes made in the 37th and 38th years of the Reign of King Edward the third untrue Suggestions made to the King and his Councell were prohibited and to be punished and that by a Statute made in the 42 d. year of the Reign of that King no man was to be brought to answer any accusation to the King without praesentment before Justices or matter of Record yet matters extraordinary or suggestions which had truth or evidence to accompany them were not by any of those Acts of Parliament forbidden and howsoever that by a Statute or Act of Parliament made in the 17 th year of the Reign of King Charls the Martyr the Kings Privy Councel were restrained from intermedling in matters concerning Freeholds and the Properties of the Subject which comprehends many of the matters which may concern any man brought before them or accused yet there is no restraint of Arrests or sending for Delinquents by the Kings Messengers or prohibition against the right use of them or the high and super eminent authority of the King and the Lords of his Honourable Privy Councel in cases to prevent Duells and make abortive dangers and inconvenient to the publique punish Riots unlawfull Assemblies and misdemeanors beyond the reach and Authority of Justices of the Peace many other emergencies who may certainly as legally make use of Messengers or Serjeants at Arms to compell disobedient and refractory persons to appear before them as the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England by or under the Kings authority doth now and hath long agoe used to do in cases of contempt of the Processe of that Court after an Attachment with Proclamation and Commission of Rebellion or as the Lord Privy Seal did usually in the Court of Requests after the like Processe could not apprehend or take the person contemning his authority or not appearing before him for unto what purpose shall that honourable and venerable Assembly who Sir Edward Coke saith are Profitable instruments of the State and do bear part of the Soveraignâ cares and imploy their time and endeavors in the Execution of the Duty of their Oathes and Places and that great trust incumbent upon them if they may not enjoy a coercive Power which the Judices paedanei petty Judicatures and even the Pye-Powder Courts of the Kingdome do enjoy or should make it their business to baffle their own authority and only send for People to come unto them when they please or when they are come before them do what they please but should within their Conusance and Jurisdiction according to a Maxime and Rule of the Civil Law well allowed and entertained by our Common-Law Cum aliquid conceditur id quoque concedi videtur sine quo id efficere non potest when any Jurisdiction or authority is granted that also which should support and attend it seemeth to be granted with it have as great a power of coercion to attend their authority as the Parliament the greater and more extraordinary Councel under the King and Head thereof is allowed and all other Councels in all the Kingdomes and Republiques of Christendome and are not therefore to be denied a just and competent Power to attend them in the administration of the affairs or business of the King intrusted unto them or to be debarred their inspection into all the affairs of the Kingdom concerning the good welfare of the King his People upon casualties accidents and cases extraordinary reformations of abuses by the Kings Edicts or Proclamations and in the deficiency of Laws in matters or things not foreseen or provided for by Laws which cannot be either so prophetick or comprehensive as to supply or give a Remedy to all things but must leave many things to ragione di Stato reason of State and the cares of our Pater Patriae Father of his Countrey and Kingdome to provide against necessities otherwise irresistable which can neither at all times tarry for the calling of a Parliament or the suffrages of it or be communicated unto the vulgar especially in unquiet or cloudy times when our Peace the blessing of our Nation cannot either enjoy her self or impart her comforts to the People without the more then ordinary vigilance of the King and his Privy Councell where the King himself is very often present especially in the absence of that as ancient as the Raign of King Edward the third then and many ages after well regulated Court of Star-Chamber many of whose Judges were the Kings Privy Councell the King himself being there rarely or seldome present and of that necessary Court of the High Commission preventing and watching over such abuses or misdemeanors as might either scandalize or disturbe the peace and good order of holy Church and such as served at the Altar And certainly that formerly great power and authority which resided in the Steward or Major-domo of the Kings Houshold who as Fleta hath recorded it enjoyed in the Reign of King Edward the first such an extraordinary power as he did vicem gerere exercise as it were the Office of Deputy to the Lord Chief Justice of England whose Office and place
laid by a Foreign Prince some English Merchants Estate had been destroyed or had their Ships or Goods taken at Sea by the Subjects of another Prince and only desired a Protection from the many times Unchristian-like fury of their Creditors untill by Letters of Reprisal or otherwise they might enable themselves to make them a just satisfaction and did but in the mean time like the innocent Doves fly to the shelter of the Rock of their Soveraign from the cruelty of the pursuing Hawk or when any imployed in the service of the King or for the good of the Nation although he be at the present neither protected or priviledged was by feigned or malicious Actions sought to be hindred or endamaged upon some reason or necessity and in all or either of those kinds have also been sparingly granted by King James and King Charles the Martyr unto some few particular men as to Philip Burlamachi and Pompeio Calandrini Natives and Merchants of Italy denizen'd and resident in England who had imployed in their services not only at home but in the parts beyond the Seas in the important affairs of ayding the Kings Allyes all the Estate and Credit which they had or could procure some if not many of which sort of Protections have not been nor are unusual in our Neighbour Countreys and in Brabant adversus Creditorum multi juges vexationes assultus to protect a Debtor against the cruelties assaults and vexations of some unmercifull Creditors quoties vel inclementia maris vel infortunio graviori demersi ad certum tempus solvere non possunt when by some great misfortunes by Sea or at Land they are not at the present able to pay whereof Hubert de Loyens in his Treatise Curia Brabantiae munere Cancellarii ejusdem of the Court of Brabant and the Office of the Chancellor of that Province gives the reason quoniam Reipublica interest subditos non depauperari sicut nec Principem cujus cum illis annexa causa est because it concerns the Weal-publick not to suffer the people nor likewise the Prince whose good or ill is annexed to theirs to be impoverished by which the poor Debtor obtains some respite and time either to pay or pacifie their enraged Creditors a custom and usage conveyed to them by Antiquity and deduced from the wisdom of the Grecians and Romans in their well ordered Governments and Commonwealths But those who might rest well satisfied with the wisdom as well as practice of our Laws are so unwilling to be undeceived and to quit their stubborn ignorance and affected errors as they will like some Garrison willing to maintain a Fort and hold out as long as they can when they can no longer defend it seek and hope to march out with better advantages in relinquishing or parting with it then they could by keeping of it and therefore will be willing to allow unto Strangers or those which the King imployeth upon Foreign or Extraordinary occasions and are not his Menial or Domestick Servants the Priviledges aforesaid so as they may exclude those that are immediately attending upon his service or the greater concernments of his person CHAP. IX That the Kings granting Protections under the Great Seal of England to such as are his Servants in ordinary for their Persons Lands and Estate when especially imployed by him into the parts beyond the Seas or in England or any other of his Dominions out of his Palace or Virge thereof or unto such as are not his Domesticks or Servants in ordinary or extraordinary when they are sent or imployed upon some of his negotiations business or affairs neither is or can be any evidence or good argument that such only and not the Kings Servants in ordinary who had no Protections under the Great Seal of England are to be protected or priviledged whilst they are busied in his Palace or about his Person WHich the men of Israel could so highly value as they disswaded King David from going in person with the Army against Absalom saying thou shalt not go forth for if we flee away they will not care for us neither if half of us dye will they care for us but now thou art worth ten thousand of us or as they shortly after said in their loyal contest with the men of Judah we have ten parts meaning the ten Tribes in the King which just esteem caused Davids three mighty men or Worthies think they had cause enough to adventure their lives to break through the Host of the Philistines and draw water out of the Well of Bethelem to bring it to David to satisfie but his thirst or longing to asswage it For if reason may be the guide or hold the Ballance and the cause be any thing of kin to the effect the more worthy and the greater is to be more respected than the less and the more necessary than that which is not so much necessary the heart and nobler parts more than the inferior and the person health and welfare of the King more than any Foreign Message or Imployment or any private mans concerns in any particular affair and that which is to be every day and night and continually more to be taken care of than that which is but accidental or temporary or upon seldom occasions for the salus populi cannot be suprema Lex nor the good and safety of the people be maintained or provided for if the King who is the Law-giver and by his Ministers and subordinate Magistrates the Laws executer and the Laws and peoples protector and defender be not so attended as he which is the Hâad and better part of the Body Politick may be kept and preserved in safety and if Lex be summa ratio the quintessence or chief of reason and semper intendit rationem alwayes intends that which is reason we may not think it to be a paradox or any stranger to reason that the Persons and Estates of the Master of the Robes the Gentlemen and Grooms of his Majesties Bed-Chamber Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber Esquires of the Body Physicians in ordinary Gentlemen Vshers Gentlemen Pensioners Yeoman of the Robes Gentlemen and Yeomen of his Guards and those many other sorts of Servants and Attendants which are as the learned Causabon terms them servi ad manum or de interioribus Aulicis necessary Servants unto his person and often and daily attendants upon him or are otherwise necessary and becoming the Majesty of a King as the Great Officers of State Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer Lord Chamberlains the Lords of his most Honourable Privy Councel Secretaries of Estate Masters of Request c. being as Pasquier a learned French Advocate saith a la suitte le Roy joignantes a la personne de Prince attending the person of the King and should neither be absent or receive any impediment in their service should be as much
waiting or attendance ANd submit themselves and those their innovated formerly unheard of cavils and pretences to the power of truth and a conviction of those their great mistakings if they shall but examine the necessity as well as the reason of it for to a Soveraign Prince whose cares are to reach as far as his Monarchy there cannot be in respect of the multitude and various sorts of his daily and ever importuning affairs in the behalf of himself and the Weal-publick a few or small number to be imployed therein if there were neither Honour nor Majesty to be heeded or supported both which by an universal consent Law Custom and usage of Nations approved and subscribed unto by a general consent of the intellect and rational faculties of Mankind should be not only the desire and joy of the people which are to be ruled and governed by them but is a ready means help and stay unto their welfare peace and happiness of which the examples are as many as the ages past and the people and Kingdoms of it When Abraham although sometimes stiled a Prince but was no Soveraign Prince but a Sojourner in the Plain of Mamre had 318. Servants to go to Battel with him against his five Neighbour Kings who had taken and spoiled his Brother Lot David had together with the Princes and Rulers of the Tribes great numbers of Officers and Men of War Officers of his Houshold and Servants therein and over his Estate besides the twelve Captains which as his Guards did in every month of the year by turns and courses attend him and the safety of his person with four and twenty thousand fighting men Solomon his Son had twelve great Officers in their severally appointed Provinces to provide Victuals for the King and his Houshold by courses each man for his month and made the Children of Israel to be his men of War and his Servants and his Princes and his Captains and Rulers of his Chariots and his Horsemen had a thousand and four hundred Chariots and twelve thousand Horsemen which declared the number of his Servants not to be small petit or inconsiderable and were so well ordered as the Queen of Sheba with a great train coming from far to see his Glory and his Court when she did behold the meat of his Table the standing of his Servants as the Margin notes it the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel and his Cup-bearers suffered under a Deliquium and failing of her spirit when he had such a state and magnificence to accompany his Regal power and so great a number of Servants to furnish out the glory and honour of his house and person Ahasuerus had seven Chamberlains as Solomon had more then one Cup-bearer and Esther had seven Maidens allowed to her The Western and Eastern divided Empires of Romes vastly extended Conquests glorying in their magnificence had to adorn the honour and state of their Emperors in their Houses and Palaces busied with multitudes of Civil affairs their Scholaes and Offices daily and hourly conversant in the attendance of their Persons Houshold or Civil imployments in every one of which although Alexander Severus the Emperor did lessen and contract them and ordained ut essent tât homines in singulis Officiis quot necessitas postularet that there might be in every Office or imployment so many Servants as necessity required there wree of one and the same sort several ranks and orders amounting to as great a number as the Imperial port state and imployments might require and could not be small when they kept as we say open houses to âeed or refresh those great numbers which came either to honour or petition their Princes had so many several Governours Procurators and Servants and so many several Houses and Palaces in their many Kingdoms and Provinces and sometimes made and set out so many Epulae and publick Feasts and many thousand Tables of them at one time to entertain comfort or please the people and to any that shall read the elaborate and learned Comment of Cuiacius upon the 10th 11th and 12th Codes or Books of Justinian Pancirollus notitia utriusque Imperii and the laborious and learned Book of Jacobus Gutherius of the various Offices and kinds of Services as well private as publick in the Houses and Palaces of the antient Emperors will not appear to be much if at all supernumerary Charlemaigne the Great King of France and Emperor of Rome as Hinckmarus Archbishop of Remes writeth who in the latter end of his Reign lived and was bred up in his Court had his several Servants and took a more then ordinary care pro honestate Palatii Regaâi Ornamento for the honour of his House or Palace and his Royal Ornaments singulis quibusque quotidianis necessitatibus occurrentibus every one in their station performing their several Offices and the Constitution of his house so laudable as multitudo congrua sine quâ rationabiliter honeste esse non possit such a competent number or multitude was necessary in regard that otherwise the business of the Houshold or Palace could not be rationally or honourably done and care was to be taken ut semper esset ornatum Palatium Consiliariis condignis nunquam destitutum esset that the honour of the Kings house might be preserved and never want the advice and help of worthy Assistants and where he speaks of the number of Huntsmen and Falconers and their constant attendance within or without the Court saith Sensus in his omnibus talis erat ut nunquam Palatio tales vel tanti deessent ministri that the meaning was that there should never want such or the like Servants And imparts to us a further reason of such a number of Servants attending the Courts of Princes in those heroick times ut ex quacunque parte totius regni quicunque desolatus orbatus alieno aere oppressus injusta calumnia cujusque suffocatus seu caetera his similia maxime tamen de Viduis Orphanis unuscujusque secundum suam indigentiam vel qualitatem Dominorum vero misericordiam pietatem semper ad manum haberet per quem singuli ad pias aures Principis perferre potuissent that from all parts of the Kingdom whoever was distressed afflicted endebted or unjustly accused or the like especially Widdows and Orphans might according to their several necessities and qualities have some at hand to procure the mercy and piety of their Lords or Masters whereby every ones Petition or Complaint might come unto the gracious ears of the Prince King Aelfred or Alured who reigned here in the year of Christ 856. had in his Court a great and Princely attendance of Bishops Earls and Nobility Knights and Esquires and three Troops of Souldiers for the Guards of his Palace as if he had an intention somewhat to imitate David the King of Israel and Juda tanquam ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
seu exemplar as a great and antient example worthy to be imitated whereof one waiting by the space of a month menseque finito adveniente alia prima domum redibat which being ended that returning home another succeeded the other two propriis quivis necessitatibus studentes commorabantur being busied about their own affairs tarried in the mean·time at home secunda itaque cohors mense peracto adveniente tertia domum redibat and the second Troop having served their month the third came into their places and the thirds course or time alotted being ended the first returned to his former attendance Et hoc ordine omnibus vitae praesentis temporibus talium vicissitudinum in Regali Curto rotatur administratio and in this manner all the life time of the said King and by such changes or courses was the service in his Royal Court administred And certainly no small number of Officers and Servants were heretofore thought to be sufficient in England to attend on our Kings and Princes when Hardi-Canutus King of England furnished Tables of meat for his Servants and all comers four times a day when Thomas Earl of Lancaster who was an Attendant himself upon the King had in the Reign of King Edward the second a Bishop and Barons officiating in his house 100 Knights and as many Esquires besides Officers and common Servants Bishops Earls and Lords in after ages rode and travelled with great Trains and Retinues Nicholas West Bishop of Ely in the Reign of King Henry the 8th had continually in his house 200 Servants Edward Earl of Darby 200 men in Checque-Roll in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and John Earl of Oxford although a well-deserving Ancestor of his that led the Vantguard of King Henry the 7th at the Battel of Bosworth-field was in that Kings after Halcyon dayes fined in a then great sum of money for attending him at his house with a very great Retinue did usually ride from his house in Essex to his house at London-Stone in London with 80 Gentlemen in Livery of Red or Tawny with Chains of Gold about their necks and 100 tall Yeomen in the like Livery to follow him without Chains but all wearing his Crest of the blew Boar embroydered on their left armes or shoulders so as in the difference betwixt the Majesty of a great and Soveraign Prince being as the Sun in our Firmament and the grandeur which his Nobility as the Stars in their lesser lights derived from it either did or should endeavour to support the measure or rule of proportion may evidence how necessary it is for a King to have an honourable and competent number of Servants when those that were so much inferior to the Majesty Power and Soveraignty of a free Prince could in their lesser Orbs not want a fitting number to attend upon the Honours which he or some of his Ancestors gave them when as by an Order of his late Majesty in the year of our Lord 1626. 40 Messengers of his Chambers were at all times to be ready to do his Majesty service and at all entertainments and receptions of Ambassadors many of the Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber are commanded to attend such of the Nobility as are appointed by the King to receive and conduct the Ambassadors unto him in so much as in the year 1636. eight Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber were appointed to attend the Earl of Lindsey to bring the King of Polands Ambassador to Hampton-Court and such multitudes and variety of cares and business which do attend a King and the consequences and grand concernments thereof so hugely different from any of their Nobility or Subjects may perswade us to allow our Saul to be as well in the number of their Houshold Servants as in all other things higher from the shoulders upwards than all or any of thâm and will better become him than those many which our murmurers were so well content to afford their Oliver the Protector of their intended slâvery when by his Instrument so called of his Usurped Government he was to have two hundred thousand pounds per annum for defraying the necessary charges of the administration of Justice and other expences of the Government besides all the Kings Revenue which was left unfold being a considerable part thereof with the Fines Amerciaments and casual profits of the basely misused and despoiled Crown of England and a pay and constant yearly maintenance of Ten Thousand Horse and Dragoons and Twenty Thousand Foot in England Scotland and Ireland with a setled yearly Revenue for the maintenance of a convenient number of Ships for guarding of the Seas allowed unto him had his Chamberlain Treasurer and Comptroller of a better house than the Brew-house which he could not thrive in at Huntington his misâcalled Lords of his Privy Counsel Commissioners of his Great Seal Secretary of State his Turn-coat Heralds Serjeants at Armes Messengers of his Chamber Ushers and many other Servants and Officers belonging to his Counterfeit Highness and his Envoys and Ambassadors one of which could not be dressed out or sent with a lesser state and magnificence than 200 Attendants And the Lord Mayor of London being but a temporary and yearly Governour of that City and one of the lesser rayes of the Majesty of our Kings communicated to that annual Magistracy under them can be allowed for his state a Recorder Common Serjeant Chamberlain TownâClerk Coroner Sword-Bearer Marshall Common Hunt Common Cryer Water-Bayliff and Under-Chamberlain four Clerks of his Mayors Court three Serjeant Carvers as many Serjeants of the Chamber a Serjeant and Yeoman of the Channel four Yeomen of the Water-side an Under Water-Bayliff two Yeomen of the Chamber three Meal-Weighers two Yeomen of the Wood-Wharfs the Sword-Bearers man the Common Hunts two men the Common Cryers man the Water-Bayliffs two men and the Carvers man some of which several Officers or Attendants do wait by turns or courses and hath one of the Kings Maces or Serjeant at Armes at some certain times of Solempnity attending upon him a resemblance of a House of Peers in his Court of Aldermen where the Recorder is the Prolocutor and a House of Commons in his Common Counsel both which upon occasions he calls and adjourns at his pleasure hath his Court of Conscience like a Chancery for equity and several Courts of Justice and when he goeth with above 60 Companies of all Trades in a kind of triumph of their Trade and Mysteries to take his Oath before the Barons of the Exchequer hath all the worship and attendance which his Towns-men or Citizens can help him unto every one of which Companies of Trade having some 20 some 45 some 120 Livery men some in their Gowns of Budge and others with Foines who at 20 or 28 l. a piece are willing to purchase a share of preheminence in the rule and ill ordering instead of better of their several Fraternities of Deceipts together with their Whiflers Marshals-men
Anno 1630. Herbert Croft Batchelor of Divinity now Bishop of Hereford and did not refuse divers of the Sons of the Nobility who sought to partake of the honour of access unto his Majesty and the more select rooms of State in his Court which in that of the Kings of Spain is not thought fit to be communicated but to some of their especial Attendants to be sworn Gentlemen Extraordinary of his Privy-Chamber as in the year 1631. the Lord Matravers eldest Son to Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey and Sir William Howard Knight of the Bath now Viscount Stafford his Brother and in the year 1638. the Earl of Kildare the first Earl of Ireland who could not be blamed for their inclinations or tendency to the center of Honour when as long before the Conquest or fatal period of our Saxon Ancestors King Alfred had many of the Sons of the Nobility educated and brought up in his Court and that noble and well becoming custom received and met with in many ages after so great an encouragement as the young Lords or Nobility had a constant Table or dyet in the Court untill in the Reign of King Edward the 6th the perswasions of a needless and unhappy parsimony did put an end to that part of the Royal munificence which King Henry the 3d. in some hundred years before would not in his greatest wants of daily necessaries occasioned by some of his unruly Barons when he took such relief as some Abbeys would afford him quit that part of the honour of his Court or Houshold nor did our late King of blessed memory deny the like honour of his Privy-Chamber to divers Gentlemen of note or great esteem in their Countries as Sir Arthur Capel Knight aâterwards Lord Capel that heroick and loyal Martyr for his King and the Fifth Commandment of his Heavenly King charged upon all Mankind in the Decalogue Sir Thomas Richardson Knight Son of Sir Thomas Richardson Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings-Bench or Sir Thomas Roe Knight a learned and well experienced Embassador to the Mogor or Mogull that great Prince in the East-Indies and to several States and Kingdoms in Christendom Sir Fulk Hunkes Knight and Sir Ferdinando Knightley Knight two well experienced Commanders in the English Regiments in the Netherlands or United Provinces Sir Edward Dearing Knight one of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament in the year 1641. and unto Sir William Waller Knight who afterwards bitterly repented the vain-glory of being a Conqueror of some of his Soveraigns Forces endeavouring to defend him and their Laws and Liberties in the late Rebellion and to some others who could afterwards stain their formerly more loyal Families in that horrid Rebellion and imploy their time and Estates against their King which had âo much honoured them or to admit into his service as a Servant Extraordinary Edmond Cooper a Drummer John Houghton a Chirurgeon or some excellent Picture-drawer as the famous Sir Anthony van Dike or some Foreign curious Engineer Gunsmith or other excelling Artificers who without some such encouragements would not have benefited our Nation with their skill and residence and was in that Prince of blessed memory and will be in our gracious Soveraign no less allowable than iâ was in King David to take into his Family as an Extraordinary when his affection and gratitude prompted him unto it Chimham the son of the good old Barzillai when many of the Yeomanry of England have besides their Servants in ordinary some that are as extraordinary and work a great part of the year with them And the Nobility and Gentry of England sincâ their restraint of giving Liveries by several Acts of Parliament to prevent the too freequent use of that in making of parties and factions in one of which viz. that of the first and second year of the Reign of King Henry the 4th cap. 21. it is provided as hath been mentioned That the King may give his Honourable Livery to his menial Knights and Esquires and also to his Knights and Esquires of his retinue who are not to use it in their Counties but in the Kings presence and the Prince and the Nobility coming unto the Court and returning from thence were specially excepted are not at this day debarred the moderate use of Liveries or some as extraordinary Servants to be imployed upon several occasions to retain unto them as the Lord Mayor of London is not without the attendance of Livery-men of the Companies or Fraternities of Trade or such as he shall select out of them in some grand Solemnities as the meeting or welcoming of the King to his City or Chamber of London at his return from a Progress or from Scotland to conduct into the City a Russian or Persian Embassador and it hath been ever accounted to be a Royal or honourable way of Espargne to have some to be extraordinary Servants without the charge of Bouche of Court or annual salaries to be alwayes in readiness at grand festivals or occasions and those Citizens of London and men of the Mysteries of gain and Trade who have aggrandized their Credits and Estates by the Sun-shine and warmth of the residence of the King and his Courts of Justice can when a little before they could busie themselves in needless murmurs and complaints against the Priviledges of the Kings Servants in ordinary and extraordinary think themselves to be no mean men in their Parishes and Companies if they can procure the favour to be admitted the Kings Servants extraordinary as he shall have occasion to be cozened in such Manufactures or Wares as their Trades afford in so much as it is become the preferment and ambition of one of every Trade great or little some few only excepted in the City of London to be entituled to be the Kings Servant as the Kings Grocer Brewer Apothecary Mercer Draper Silk-man Taylor Printer Stationer Bookseller Girdler a Trade now altogether disused Shoomaker Spurrier c. and are well contented to enjoy all the Priviledges appertaining to the Kings Servants as not to bear Offices in their Parishes or Custard-cram'd Companies and not to be arrested without licence And their Wives swelling into a tympany of Pride will be apt enough to think their former place and reputation too far beneath them and not let their Husbands purse have any rest or quiet untill they can be fine enough to go to the Court and see the Lords and Ladies their Husbands fellow Servants And they which cannot attain to that honour to be such a Servant of the Kings extraordinary for they cannot be truly said to be any thing more than the Kings Servants extraordinary when as he as to many of them hath no daily or but a seldom and occasional use of them and where he hath most it is not constantly or often do think it to be worth the utmost of their endeavours to obtain the honour and priviledge of being the Queens
signified by the Emblems or Figures of the Lyons guarding or supporting of Solomons Throne and astonishing Royalty Which most laudable custom was not only observed in the time of the Western and Eastern Emperors but of the Franks Goths Longobards and other Northern Nations who imitated them And from such honourable services and employments about Emperors Kings and Princes likewise were derived Count Palatines whom they found a kind of necessity to institute when they understood their other Subjects to be troubled that none but Romans had those honours and dignities conferred upon them and their Courts and Palaces appeared to be solitary and unfrequented and therefore opened the doors of honour to their Subjects of other Nations and Provinces as appears by the after usage of the Roman and Grecian Emperors and made and ordained Comites sacri Falatii Count Palatines which the Title of Count Palatine given by Charlemaine to Antholinus will further evidence and the Count Palatines of the Empire of Germany as Pasquier that learned Advocate of France hath remarked had their names from their Offices Superintendencies and Places which they antiently held au tour des Empereurs de Rome de la Suitte des Empereurs and in their service and attendance as Crmites Palatii were in Comitativa Principis in the Retinue of the Emperors which in the elder times were so reverenced and respected as it was not unfrequently in many Laws and good Authors stiled Sacra as meriting a veneration due unto Gods Vicegerents Et ipsa Principis Aula residentia and the Court and Palace of the Prince was saith Marquardus Freherus sometimes known by the name of Comitatus sacer comitatus a place of reverence more especially appropriate to honor and men deserving it and the French Kings Court is by the modern French at this day tearmed Comitatus and in the time of Charlemaine and his Son Hludowick Kings of France the Earls were tanquam Judices Judges in their several Earldomes or Provinces qui post Regem populum regere debent who next under the King as the Dukes did in their several Dukedoms were to govern the people necesse est ut tales instituantur qui sine periculo ejus qui âos constituit quos sub se babent cum justitia aequitate gubernare officium adimplere procurent there being a necessity that such should be appointed who without danger of those who constituted or deputed them may have under them such as may govern them with Justice and Equity and do what belongeth to them And our Earls and English Nobility were of the like Character Esteem and Subserviency to our Kings and Princes when in the time of Bertulphus King of the Mercians who Reigned in England in the year of our Lord 851. such of them as had not as Sir Henry Spelman saith constant Offices or places in the Kings Court tenebantur ex more obsequii vinculo antiquissimo as also were the other Baronage in tribus maximis festivitatibuus Christi scilicet natalitiis Sancti Paschatis Pentecostes Regi Annuatim adesse cum ad curiam personam ipsius exornandum tum ad consulendum de negotiis regni statuendum que prout fuerat necessarium were by most antient custome and tye of obedience at three of the greatest Feasts in every year that is to say at Christmass Easter and Whitsontide to attend at the Kings Court as well for the honour of his Person and Court as to advise and councel him as there should be occasion in the weighty affairs of the Kingdom which saith that great light and restorer of our English Antiquities gave at the first an original and beginning to our great Councels afterwards and now called Parliaments and Johannes Saresburiensis stiled all the great Officers of the English Court Comites Palatini Earls or Lords of the Palace Royal at least such as being Earls were also honoured with the greater Court Dignities and had relation to the Dignities and Privileges of our English Nobility Such service and attendance of the Nobility upon the person and affairs of their Soveraign being not unusual in the dayes of Jehoiakim King of Judah when Michaiah the son of Gemariah found all the Princes sitting in the Kings house in the Scribes chamber and standing besides the King when the Roll of Baruch was read When the great King Ahasuerus made a Feast unto all his Princes and his servants the power of Persia and Media the Nobles and Princes of the Provinces being before him and he shewed the honour of his Excellent Majesty he advised concerning the misbehaviour of his Queen Vaschi with the wise men which knew the times for so was the Kings manner towards all that knew law and judgement and with the seven Princes of Persia and Media which saw the Kings face and sate the first in the Kingdome And those Officiary Dignities Honors and Privileges of the English Nobility were so consonant to the Law of Nations and the usage and customs of the Empire as in Anglia tam ante quam post Conquestore Wilhelmum Normannum Comites seu Graviones Justitiarii hisque cum ad privata quam publica judicia suis fuere in comitatibus and not only before but for sometimes after the Norman Invasion did under their Kings preside and govern the Justice of that County or Territory of which they were Earls and had allowed unto them the Tertium denarium Third penny or part of the fines and amerciaments and the customs and some other casual profits belonging to the Crown in their several Counties as our Selden a most universally learned and judious Lawyer hath in the Earldoms of Chester and Oxford observed and for some of the Ages succeeding the Norman atchievment have been Chief Justices of Englund as in the Reign of King Stephen Awbrey de Vere Earl of Guisnes Father of Awbrey de Vere the first Earl of Oxford Robert de Bellomont or Beaumont Earl of Leicester in the Reign of King Henry the 2d and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter Earl of Essex in the Reigns of King Richard the first and King John our Bracton acknowledging that our Earls and Nobility were upon occasions to attend upon the person of their Sovereign Prince calleth our Earls Comites a Comitando sive a Socieâate from or by reason of their accompanying or attendance upon the person of the Prince saith dici possunt Consules Reges enim tales sibi associant ad consulendum and our Nation was not without its Local Count Palatines who had greater authorities and profits in their Counties and Jurisdictions than other Earls as those of Chester Lancaster Pembroke and the Palatineships belonging to the Bishopicks of Durham and Ely And Hoveden our old Annals and Selden that Monarch of Letters do tell us that King John die Coronationis suae accinxit Willielmuw Marescallum gladio Comitatus de Striguil
Galfridum filium Petri gladio Comitatus Essex qui licet antea vocati essent Comites administrationem suarum Comitatuum habuissent tamen non erant accincti gladio Comitatus ipsa illa die servierunt ad mensam Regis accincti gladiis did upon the day of his Coronation gird William Marshal with the Sword of the Earldome of Striguil or Pembroke and Jeffery Fitz-Peter with the Sword of the Earldome of Essex who although they were before called Earls and had the government of their Earldomes yet until then were not invested or girt with the Sword of their Earldomes and the same day they waited upon the King as he sate at meat with their Swords girt about them and the service of our Earls and Nobility were held to be so necessary about their Soveraign in the Reign of King Edward the second as John de Warrenna Earl of Surrey had in the 14th year of that King a dispensation not to appear before the Justices Itinerant before whom in certain of his affairs he had a concernment in these words viz. Edwardus dei gratia Rex Angliae c. Justitiariis notris Itineratur in Com. Norff. Quia dilectum fidelem nostrum Johannem de Warrenna Comitem Surrey quibusdam de causiis juxta latus nostrum retinemus hiis diebus per quod coram vobis in Itinere vestro in Com. praedicto personaliter comparere non potest ad loquelas ipsum in eodem Itinere tangentes prosequendi defendendi nos ex causa praedicta Indempnitati praefati Comitis provideri cupientes in hac parte vobis mandamus quod omnes praedictas loquelas de die in diem coram vobis continuetis usque ad Octabas Paschae prox futur Ita quod extunc citra finem Itineris vestri praedicti loquelae illae andiantur terminantur prout de jure secundum legem consuetudines regni nostri fuerit faciend Edward by the grace of God King of England c. to his Justices about to go the Circuit in our County of Norfolk sendeth greeting In regard that for certain causes we have commanded the attendance of John of Warren Earl of Surrey upon our person so as he cannoâ personally appear before you in your Circuit to prosecute and defend certain actions or matters wherein he is concerned we desiring to indempnifie the said Earl therein for the cause aforesaid do command you that you do from day to day adjorn the said Pleas and Actions until eight dayes after Easter next so as you may according to the laws and custome of our Kingdome before the end of your said Circuit hear and determine the said matters or actions In which Writ the said Earl being descended from VVilliam de VVarrenna who marryed a daughter of King VVilliam Rufus was not stiled the Kings Cousin as all the Earls of England have for some ages past been honored either by the stile of Chancery or the Secretaries of State in a Curiality with which the more antient and less Frenchified times were unacquainted for notwithstanding an opinion fathered upon our learned Selden that in regard the antient Earls of England being the Cousins or of the consanguinity or affinity of William the Conqueror or many of the succeeding Kings those Earls that were afterwards created did enjoy that honourable Title of the Kings Cousin it will by our Records and such Memorials as time hath left us be evidenced and clearly proved that all the Earls which William the Conqueror and his Successors have created were not of their Kindred or Alliance and those that were of the consanguinity of our Kings and Princes as Awbrey de Vere the first Earl of Oxford whose Father Awbrey de Vere marryed the Sister by the half blood of William the Conquerour was neither in the grants of the Earldome of Oxford and office of Great Chamberlain of England by Maud the Empress or King Henry the second her Son stiled their Cousin nor William de Albiney formerly Earl of Sussex who marryed Adeliza Widdow of King Henry the first Daughter of Godfrey Duke of Lorrain in the grant of the Earldome Castle and Honour of Arundel by King Henry the second was termed that Kings Cousin neither in the recital in other grants wherein the great Earls of Leicester and Chester are mentioned is there any such intimation for in the first year of the Reign of King John William Marshall Earl of Pembroke William Earl of Salsbury and Ranulph Earl of Chester and Lincoln in the second year of King Henry the third had it not and in the Summons of Parliament Diem clausit extremum and other grants or writs of divers of the succeeding Kings in the former ages until about the Reign of King Edward the fourth where mention was made of some of those and other great Earls of this Kingdom there were none of those honorary Titles and it is not at this day in the ordinary Writs and Process where they are named either as Plaintiffs or Defendants and in France where those graces are in the Royal Letters and Missives frequently allowed to the greater sort of the Nobility howsoever the Queen Mother and Regent of France was about the year 1625. pleased in a Letter to the late George Duke of Buckingham to give him the honour to be called her Cousin very often omitted And those honours of attending their Kings and being near his person or being imployed in his Royal commands were so desirable by as many as could by their virtue antiently the Seminary and cause of all honour obtain it as they thought the service of their Prince not happiness enough unless their Heirs and after Generations as well as themselves might partake of the honour to do service unto him and therefore could be well content to have some of their Lands which some of our Kings of England gave them which they hoped to hold unaliened to them and their Heirs in Fee or in Tayl astrictae obliged and tyed also as their persons to those no inglorious services as the Earls of Oxford holding the Castle of Hedingham in the County of Essex and the Manor of Castle Campes in the Counties of Cambridge and Essex to them and their Heirs in Tayl by the Tenor and Service of being great Chamberlain of England and the Manors of Fingrith in the County of Essex and Hormead or Hornemead in the County of Hertford descended unto them by the Marriage of a Daughter and Heir of the Lord Sanford by the Service and Tenure of being Chamberlain to the Queens of England die Coronationis suae upon the dayes of their Coronation that of great Chamberlain of England being an Office distinct and separate from that of Chamberlain of the Kings House which was as appeareth by many Charters of our antient Kings and their Chamberlains Subscriptions thereunto as witnesses long before the grant of great Chamberlain of England and as then are now only
holden at the good will and pleasure of our Kings and Princes And Time in his long Travels hath not yet so let fall and left behind him those reverential duties and personal services of our Dukes Earls and Baronage as to invite a disuse or discontinuance of them when they have of late time not only when Summoned perform'd several Ministerial Offices as at the Coronation of our Kings but at other great Solemnities and Festivals as at the Feast of Saint George Where in the year 1627. being the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr the Lord Percy afterwards Earl of Northumberland carryed the Sword before the King the Lord Cavendish and Wentworth bearing up his Trayn the great Basin was holden by the Earls of Suffolk Devonshire Manchester and Lindsey the Earl of Devonshire the same day serving as Cupbearer the Earl of Cleveland as Carver the Lord Savage as Sewer none of the Knights of the Garter that day officiating In the year of our Lord 1638. the Earls of Kent Hartford Essex Northampton Clare Carlisle Warwick Dover St. Albans and the Viscount Rochford were summoned by the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings houshold to attend at the instalment of the Prince Knight of the Garter and in the year 1640. amongst other young Noblemen appointed to attend the King at his going to the Parliament the Duke of Buckingham Earl of Oxford and Lord Buckhurst did bear up his Trayn The Earls of Leicester had the Office of Steward of England distinguished from and not so antient as the Steward of the Houshold who injoyed but an incertain estate of during pleasure annexed to the Earldom of Leicester and accounted as parcel of it William Marshal Earl of Pembroke to be Earl Marshal of England Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex to be Constable of England and to hold some principal part of their Lands and Estates by Inheritance in Fee or in Tayl by the Tenure of those very honourable Offices and Services as the Manor of Haresfield in the County of Gloucester per servitium essendi Constabular Angliae by the Service of being Constable of England and the Offices of Earl Marshal and Constable were distinct and antiently exercised in the Kings Court as Marescalcia Curiae Constabularia Curiae were afterwards as the Learned Sir Henry Spelman conceived by some extent and enlargement gained of their Jurisdictions or rather by the Tenure of some of their Lands separately stiled Constable and Earl Marshals of England leaving the Office or Title of Sub-Marshal or Knight-Marshal to exercise some part of the Office of the Earl-Marshals Jurisdictions as more appropriate to the Kings House or Courts of Justice some antient Charters of our Kings of England before the Reign of King Henyy the second and some in his Reign after his grant of the Constableship of England was made by him to Miles of Gloucester informing us by the Subscriptions of Witnesses that there was a Constable during the Kings pleasure and sometimes two besides the Constable of England who claimed and enjoyed that Office by Inheritance The Custody of the Castle of Dover and the keeping of the Cinque-Ports were granted by King Henry the sixth to Humphrey Duke of Buckingham and the Heirs Males of his body The Earls of Oxford for several Ages and the now Earl of Lindsey descending from them as Heir General now being Stewards Keepers or Wardens of the Forest of Essex and Keepers of King Edward the Confessors antient Palace of Havering at the Bower in the said County to him and his Heirs claimed and enjoyed from a Daughter and Heir of the Lord Badlesmere and he from a Daughter and Coheir of Thomas de Clare And some of our Nobility believed it to be no abasement of their high birth and qualities to be imployed in some other Offices or Imployments near the person or but sometimes residence of the King as to be Constable of his Castle or Palace of Windsor as the late Duke of Buckingham was in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr and Prince Rupert that now is or Keeper of the Kings house or Palace of VVoodstock and Lieutenent of VVoodstock Park as the late Earl of Lindsey was for the term of each of their natural lives And some illustrious and worthy Families as that of the Marshals Earls of Pembroke Butler now Duke of Ormond the Chamberlains antiently descended from the Earl of Tancarvil in Normandy who was hereditary Chamberlain of Normandy to our King Henry the first and our Barons Dispencers have made their Sirnames and those of their after Generations the grateful Remembrancers of their very honourable Offices and Places under their Soveraign it being accounted to be no small part of happiness to have lands given them to hold by grand Serjeanty some honourable Office or attendance upon our Kings at their Coronation as to carry one of the Swords before him or to present him with a Glove for his right hand or to support his right hand whilst he held the Virge Royal claymed by the Lord Furnivall or to carry the great Spurrs of Gold before him claymed by John Hastings the Son and Heir of John Hastings Earl of Pembroke or to be the Kings Cupbearer claymed by Sir John de Argentine Chivaler And some meaner yet worthy Families have been well content to have Lands given unto them and their Heirs to hold by the Tenures of doing some personal Service to the Kings and Queens of England at their Coronations the Service of the King or Prince being in those more virtuous times so welcome to all men and such a path leading to preferment as it grew into a Proverb amongst us not yet forgotten No Fishing to the Sea no Service to the King And was and is so much a Custome of Nations as in the German Empire long before the Aurea Bulla the Golden Bull or Charter of Charles the 4th Emperour was made in the year 1356. being about the middle of the Reign of our King Edward the third and not a new Institution as many have mistaken it as is evident by the preamble and other parts of that Golden Bull which was only made to preserve an Unity amongst the seven Electors and better methodize their business and Elections The Princes Electors were by the Tenure of their Lands and Dominions to perform several services to the Emperor and his Successors As the Prince Elector or Count Palatine of the Rhine was to do the service of Arch Sewer of the Empire at the Coronation of the Emperour or other great Assemblies the Duke of Saxony Stall Master or Master of ths Horse the Marquess of Brandenburgh Chamberlain the King of Bohemia Cup-bearer and in Polonia at this day Sebradousky the now Palatine of Cracow claimeth and enjoyeth by Inheritance the Office or Place of Sword-bearer to the Crown or King of Poland And so highly and rightly valued were those Imployments and Offices as they that did but
or the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England being by special privilege Visitor of all the Kings Chappels For the Kings Chappel and the Prelate of the Honourable Order of the Garter Dean and Sub-dean of the Chappel and all other Officers of that religious and excellently ordered Oratory being as a part of the Kings most Honorable Household when the extravagant and superaboundant power of the English Clergy by the Papal influency which had almost overspread and covered the Kingdome assisted many times by the Popes Italian or English Legates a latere such as were Ottobon and some Arch-bishops of Canterbury was in its Zenith or at the highest and sate as Jupiter the false God of the Heathens with his Triââlce or Thunder-bolts were not nor are at this day although the Doctrine and Rights therein are of no small importance to the Religion and Exercises thereof in the Kingdome subjected to the Visitation of any Bishops or Arch-bishops but of the King who as Sir Edward Coke also acknowledgeth is their only Ordinary And were heretofore so exempt from either the Popes or any Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction as King Johâ did in the first year of his Raigne grant to Walter Biâstarr for his service done Serjeantiam in Capella sua scilicet illâm quam Martinus de Capella tenuit tempere Henrici Regis patris sui praeterea medietatem Caparum Episcopalium Habendum tenendum de se Heredibus suis cum omnibus ad predictam Serjeantiam pertin the Serjeanty in his Chappel which Martin de Capella held in the time of his Father King Henry And also the Moiety of the Bishops Capes or Copes used therein to have and to hold together with the said Serjeanty of him and his Heirs And when all the Bishops of England which have been Chancellors or Keepers of the great Seal Chief Justices of England or Treasurer as some of them have been might understand that their more immediate service of the King brought them an accession of honour and were then in a threefold capacity First as the Servants and Ministers of the King Secondly as Bishops and Barons the duty whereof King Henry the 3 d. did so well understand as in the 48 th year of his Raigne travelling by Herefordshire into Wales and finding the Bishop of Hereford absent and many of that Clergy not resident he sent his Writ unto him commanding him to take more care of his Clergies residence and threatned otherwise to seize and take into his hands his Temporalties Et omnia quae ad Baroniam ipsius Ecclesiae pertinent and all other things which to the Barony of his Church or Bishoprick belonged And Thirdly as great Officers of Trust and State under him the later being so esteemed to be the worthiest as the Act of Parliament made in the 31 th year of the Raign of King Henry the 8 th how Lords in the Parliament should be placed did especially ordain that if a Bishop hapned to be the Kings Cheif Secretary he should sit and be placed above all other Bishops not having any the great Offices of State and Trust under the King in the said Act of Parliament mentioned and if the chief Secretary of the King were above the degree of a Baron he should sit and be placed above all other Barons being then and there present The Puisney Bishop attending in that high and honourable Court being by antient usage of that Court to pray every morning before the rest of that assembly during the Session of Parliament before they do proceed to any Consultations or business the other Bishops and the Arch-bishop of York who once contended with the Arch-bishop of Canterbury for the primacy taking it to be an honour to Officiate before the King or to be near him so as Edward Arch-bishop of York and Cuthbert Tunstall Bishop of Duresme being sent by King Henry the eight to signifie unto Queen Catherine the sentence of his divorce and they shortly after giving an accompt of her answer did in a joint Letter subscribe themselves Your Highnesses Obedient Subjects Servants and Chaplains and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury for the time being was by the Statutes or Orders of King Henry the eighth made at Eltham in the 17 th year of his Raigne ordered to be always or very often at Court and all the other Bishops aswell as the Arch-bishop believing themselves to be by sundry Obligations bound unto it are not seldome employed by our Kings in their several Diocesses and Jurisdictions as the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Ely and their Successors in their County Palatines and with the Arch-bishops and other Bishops are by the Kings appointment and Election to preach in his Chappel at Court in times of Solemn Festivals and Lent and in the Lord Chamberlaines Letter or Summons thereunto are required to be ready at the several times appointed to perform their service therein one of that antient and necessery order or Hirarchy being the Kings Almoner another the Deân of his Chappel to govern and see good orders obsârved therein the later whereof hath his lodgings in the Kings Courts or Pallace and untill the unhappy remitting of the Royal Pourveyance had his Beâche at Court or diet the Bishop of âââchester and his Successors to be Prelates of the ãâã another Clark of his Closset as the Bishop ãâã Oxford lately was to attend upon the King in the place where he sits in his Chappel or Oratory the presence of the Prince and an opportunity aâârare ejus purpuram to be often in their sight not by any Idolatreus worship but as the civil Law and usage of the Antients have interpreted it by an extraordinary reverence done to him by kneeling and touching the Hem or lower part of his purple or outward Garment and immediately after kissing his hand which was accounted saith Cuiââius to be no small favour which the people and all the great men of the Eastern and Western Empires under their Emperors deemed to be a happiness as well as an honour as do the German Bishops Electors in their larger and more Princely Jurisdictions the Arch-bishop of Mente being Chanceller to the Empire for Germany and to have a priviledge to assist at the Coronation of the Emperors by puting the Crown upon his head the Arch-bishop of Cologne for Italy and the Arch-bishop of Tryers for France or rather for the Kingdome of Arles or Burgundy as well as to be Electors of the Emperors and their Successors So as our Laws which if a Bishop be riding upon his way will not enforce him to tarry and examine the ability of a Clark presented unto him though it may require hast and prevent a lapse or other inconvenience but his convenient leisure ought to be attended will allow an Earlâ in respect of his dignity and the necessity of his attendance upon the King and the Weal Publick to make a Deputy Steward and gives our Nobility
come with them to sach Convocation often times and commonly be arrested molested and inquieted the King willing gratiously in that behalf to provide for the security and quieâness of the said Prelates and Clergy at the supplication of the said Prelates and Clergie and by the assent of the great men and Commons in Parllament assembled did ordain and establish that all the Clergy hereafter to be called to the Convocation by the Kings writ and their servants and familiars should for ever hereafter fully use and enjoy such liberty or defenee in coming tarrying and retorning as the great men and commonly of the Realm of England called or to be called to the Kings Parliament did enjoy or were wont to enjoy or in time to come ought to enjoy In the 23. and 24 th year of the Raigne of that King the Commons in Parliament did pray the King that every person being of the Lords or Commons House having any assault or fray made upon him being at the parliament or coming or going from thence might have the like remedy therefore as Sir Thomas Parre Knight had which shews that in those days they did not endeavour to punish any breach of their priviledges by their own authority but made their addresse by their petitions unto the King as their Soveraigne and Supreme for his Justice therein To which the King answered the Statutes therefore made should be observed In the 28 th year of the said Kings Raigne It was at the request of the Commons in parliament for that William Taylebois of South Lime in the County of Lincoln Esq would in the Parliament time have slain Ralph Lord Cromwell one of the Kings Councel in the Pallace of Westminster Enacted that the said William Taylebois should therefore be committed to the Tower of London there to remain one year without bayle baston or Mainprize and that before his delivery he should answer unto the same In the 14 th and 15 th year of the Raign of King Edward the 4 th William Hide a Burgess of Parliament for the Town of Chippenham in Wiltshire being a Prisoner upon a Writ of Capias ad satisfaciendum obtained a Writ out of the Chancery to be delivered with a saving of the right of other men to have Execution after the Parliament ended notwithstanding the Pâecedent of Sir William Thorpe Knight Speaker of the house of Commons in the 18 th year of the Raigne of the Raigne of King Henry the 6 th taken in Execution for a debt of 1000 l. at the suit of Richard Duke of York betwixt the adjournment and recess of that Parliament and could not be released so as a new Speaker was chosen in his place which may well be conjectered to have been so carried by the then overbearing power and influence of that Duke and his party great alliance and pretences to the Crown which that meek and pious King was not able to resist For in the 17 th year of the raigne of King Edward the 4 th at the petition of the Commons in Parliament the King with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal granted that John Atwill a Burgess of the City of Exeter condemned in the Exchequer during the Parliament upon eight several informations at the suit of John Taylor of the same Town should have as many Writs of Supersedeas as he would untill his coming home after the Parliament In the 35 th year of the Raigne of King Henry the 8 th Trewyniard a Burgess of Parliament being imprisoned upon an Utlary in an action of debt upon a Capias ad satisfaciendum was delivered by priviledge of Parliament allowed to be legal by the opinion of the Judges before whom that case of his imprisonment and release was afterwards debated and their reasons as hath been before remembred given for the same with which agreeth the precedent in the case of Edward Smalley a servant of Mr. Hales a member of Parliament taken in Execution in the 18 th year of the Raigne of Queen Elizabeth in the Report whereof made by the Committee of Parliament for his delivery it is said that the said Committee found no precedent for the setting at large any person in arrest but only by writ and that by diverse precedents on Record and perused by the said Committee it appeared that every Knight Citizen and Burgesse of the house of Commons in Parliament which doth require priviledge hath used in that case to take a corporal oath before the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being that the party for whom such writ is prayed came with him to the Parliament was his servant at the the time of the arrest made whereupon Mr Hale was directed by the house of Commons to make an oath before the Lord Keeper as aforesaid and to procure a warrant for a Writ of priviledge for his said servant howbeit the Lords in Parliament did in the Raigne of Queen Elizabeth usually of their own authority deliver their Servants out of Execution if arrested in Parliament time In the 27 th year of her Raigne a Member of the house of Commons having been served with a Writ of Subpaena issuing out of the Chancery and the house signifying to the Lord Keeper that it was against their priviledge he retorned answer that he could not submit to any opinion of the house concerning their priviledges except those priviledges were allowed in Chancery and would not recall the Subpaena With which accordeth Mr. VVilliam Pryn too violent an undertaker in the late times of usurpation to assert their phantosme or feigned soveraignty whereof he was then and since his Majesties happy restoration untill his death a member who having by the keeping of the Records in the Tower of London found the way to a better weighed and more sober consideration and cause enough if he would have well inspected himself and what he had formerly written to retract those many errors which an overhasty reading and writing had hurried him into hath in his animadversions upon Sir Edward Cokes 4 th part of his Institutes declared that the house of Commons in Parliament had untill the later end of the last Century assumed no Jurisdiction to themselves or their Committee of priviledges to punish breaches of priviledges but onely complained thereof to the King or the Lords in Parliament And therefore King James in an answer to a Petition of the House of Commons in Parliament in Anno Dom. 1622 was not in an error when he said that although we cannot allow of the stile calling your priviledges your antient and undoubted rights and inheriiance but could rather have wished that you had said that your priviledges were derived from the grace or permission of our Ancestors and us for most of them were from precedents which shews rather a tolleration then inheritance yet we are pleased to give you our royal assurance that as long as you contain
of our Kings and Princes CHAP XVIII That many of the People of England by the grace and favour of our Kings and Princes or a long permission usage or prescription do enjoy and make use of very many immunities exemptions and priviledges which have not had so great a cause or foundation as those which are now claimed by the Kings Servants ANd do and may more inconvenience such part of the People which have them not than the little trouble of asking leave or licence to sue or prosecute at Law any of the Kings Servants as the freedom of Copy-hold Estates not long ago three parts in four of all the Lands in England but now by the making and enfranchising of too many Freeholders reduced to less than a fourth part from extents or the incumbrances of Judgments Statutes or Recognizances Not to permit upon any one Creditors Judgment any more than the Moiety of Free-hold Lands to be extended that old part of our English mercy to Men impoverished or indebted which to this day and many hundred years before hath been constantly observed nor to seize or take in Execution unless for want of other Goods and Chattels the Beasts and Cattel of their Ploughs and Carts derived unto us from the law of Nature or Nations or the providence and compassion of Nebuzar-adan the chief Marshal or Captain of the Army of Nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon who when he had taken and destroyed Jerusalem and carried away captive to Babylon many of the people of Judah and Jerusalem left certain of the poor of the Land for Vinedressers and for Husbandmen and from the reason equity and moderation of the Civil Law Or when the Laws or reasonable Customs of England will not permit a Horse to be destrained when a Man or Woman is riding upon him an Ax in a Mans hand cutting of Wood the Materials in a Weavers Shop Garments or Cloth in a Taylors Shop Stock of Corn or Meal in a Mill or Market or Books of a Schollar the many and great Franchises Liberties Exemptions and Priviledges some whereof have been already mentioned of about six hundred Abbies and Priories the many Liberties and Franchises in every County and Shire of England and Wales which if no more than five in every County one with another would make a total of more than two hundred and fifty and if ten amount to the number of five hundred besides those of above six hundred Cities and Corporations which are not without great Priviledges Immunities Exemptions and Liberties which do occasion more trouble and loss of time by sueing out of Writs of Non omsttas propter aliquam libertatem to give power to the Sheriffs to Arrest within those Liberties than the attendance upon a a Lord Chamberlain or other great Officer of the Kings Houshold to obtain leave to Arrest any of the Kings Servants would bring upon them those many thousand Mannors to which are granted Court-Leets and Court-Barons with their many other Liberties and Franchises little Judicatories Sace and Soke authority and a Coercive power over their Tenants Free and Copy-hold and Free Warren granted to many of those Lords of Mannors whose Hunting and Hawking brings many times no small prejudice to their Neighbors or Tenants the Franchises Liberties and priviledges of the City of London given or permitted by our Kings that no Citizen shall be compelled to Plead or be Sued or Prosecuted at Law out of the Walls of their City and their Prohibitions by Acts of Common Council which do prohibit Freemen upon great Penalties which have been severely inflicted to Sue one another out of the City when they may have their recovery in their own Courts and every Freeman bound thereunto by Oath at their admission to their Freedom their priviledge of Lestage to be Toll-free of all which they buy or sell in any Market or Fair of the Kingdom are not to be constrained to go to War out of the City or farther than from whence they may return at Night that none but such as are free of the City shall Work or Trade within it or the large extended Liberties within the circumference thereof That of the City of Norwich to have the like Liberties as London the Liberties of the City of Canterbury City of Winchester and Towns of Southampton and Derby not to be impleaded out of their Cities or Corporations That of the Hospitallers and Knight-Templers and many others saith Bracton not to be impleadid but before the King or his Chief Justice That of the University of Oxford That no Schollar Servant or Officer to any Colledge or Hall in the Vniversity or to the said Vniversity belonging shall be Arrested within the City or the Verge or Circumference thereof extending from the said University and Town of Oxford Ab orientali parte ejusdem Villae usque ad Hospitalem sancti Bartholomei juxta Oxon ab occidentali parte ejusdem Villae usque ad Villam de Botelye a parte Boreali ejusdem Villae usque ad pontem vocat Godstow Bridge ab australi parte ejusdem Ville usque ad quendam Boscâm vocat Bagley sic in circuitu per Loca praedicta quemlibet locum eorundem in perpetuum From the East part of the said Town unto the Hospital of St. Bartholomew near Oxford and from the West part of the said Town to the Village of Botely and from the North part of the said Town of Oxford to Godstow Bridge and from the South part of the said Town of Oxford to a certain Wood called Bagley and in the circumference of the said City and University extending unto all the Places aforesaid and every of the said Places for ever but by Process or Mandate of the Chancellor of the University of Oxford or if prosecuted or impleaded in the High Court of Chancery or in the Court of Kings-Bench where the Party prosecuting hath been a Sub-Marshal of the said Court and a Commissary of the Chancellor of that University hath been Indicted forbeating of him or in any of the other Courts of Justice at Westminster or any other Court of the Kingdom do by their Certificate under their half Seal as it is called that the Defendant is a Schollar or belonging to the Vniversity or some Hall or Colledge therein demand and obtain Cognizance of the Action which with other of that famous Universities Priviledges were in the thirteenth Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth confirmed by Act of Parliament that of the University of Cambridge being not without those or the like franchises priviledges and immunities against which or many more of the like nature which might be here recited there ought not to be any murmure or repining as there never was or but seldom or very little by alledging any prejudice loss or inconveniences which some have sustained thereby or may happen to particular Men by any of those or the like Franchises Immunities or Priviledges which
convenire Commanded the whole County without any delay to assemble together as well French as English and more especially such of the English as were skilful in the ancient Laws and Customs of England ubi Goisfredus Bishop of Constance in loco Regis saith the Leiger Book of Rochester vel vice Regis saith Eadmerus fuit Justiciam illam tenuit âat Judge for or in the place or stead of the King as his Commissioner Hujus placiti multis testibus multisque rationibus determinatum finem postquam Rex audivit laudavit laudans cum consensu omnium principum suorum which could not be the Commons in Parliament as it is now formed or the then Commune Concilium the Parliament consisting of his Nobility Bishops and Peers who could not all of them be stiled Princes but were rather such of his greater sort of Nobility as were then attending upon him in his Court assembled and met together by his Command in that great and more than ordinary County-Court confirmavit ut deinceps incorruptus persevâraret âirmiter praecepit the end of which Trial made by many Witnesses and Reasons being certified to the King he greatly approved it and by the consent of all his Princâs confirmed and strictly commanded it to be inviolably observed In the Reign of William Rufus his Son the Delegated Justice of the King in his Courts was so little believed not to be the Kings or the Judgments thereby or therein given not owned or understood to be given by the King as it was the Opinion as well as Complaint of Anselme Arch-bishop of Canterbury how justly or unjustly the Men of that Age when the Church-men were unruly and did not seldom forget themselves and their Benefactors did best know quod cuncta Regalis Curia pendebant ad nutum Regis nilque in ipsis nisi solum velle illius considerari That all matters in the Kings Court depended upon his Will and his onely Will was the Director thereof and whether the particular Interest of that stout and pious Prelate had therein misled his Judgment or no they must be too much unacquainted with our Laws reasonable Customs Annals Memorials Records and Accompts of Time and Transactions bigane and past as well as those of other Nations and the right origination or signification of the word Curia or Court and the no infrequent usage or acceptation thereof if they do not acknowledge that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã nuncupatur potestas Dominium ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã qui potestate fretus est judiciumque exercet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quasi habitacula Domini That Curia signifieth Power and Dominion and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he that exerciseth that Power in giving Judgment therein and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Habitation or Place of Residence of the Lord or Superior dicebatur autem Curia saith the judicious Sr. Henry Spelman primo de Regia seu palatio Principis inde de familia Judiciis in ea habitis ritu veterrimo it being at the first or more especially called Curia or the Court and took its Denomination by a most antient Usage or Custom from the Kings House or Palace and afterwards from their Houshold or Family and the Place where Kings did administer Justice And so untill Courts for the distribution of Justice were allow'd for the ease of Princes and better accommodation of their People out of their Houses or Palaces it will not be easie or possible to espy any essential difference as to the Place of doing Justice betwixt Curia Regis and Camera Regis the Court or Chamber of the King for after that some of our Courts of Justice in England by the indulgence of their Soveraigns ceased either to be ambulatory or resident in their Palaces those that have not bid a defiance to that universally allowed and entertained Maxim by all or most part of Mankind Qui facit per alium facit per se He that doth by another is truly and rightly said to have done it himself and are not resolved to encounter or be adversaries to all the right Reason which they can meet with or to pick up such weak and incogent Arguments as may make a shadow rather than substance of Truth or right Reason ought to confess that there is no real difference between the Kings doing of Justice in his own Person and cauâing it to be done by others or betwixt the hearing of Causes or doing of Justice in the Hall or his Privy Chamber or any other Room of his House or Palace and that before and from the Conquest untill after the thirty eighth Year of the Reign of King Edward the Third whilst the Chief Justice of the Court of Kings Bench attended our Kings as well in their Courts as Progress to assist him in matters of Law and the Decision of Pleas of the Crown and such matters of Law as were not appropriate to the Decision of the Court of Common Pleas as it was then and hath been since constituted which did not leave the Kings Court or Palace untill King Henry the Third commanded it in the twentieth Year of his Reign to abide at Westminster Our Kings of England have in their own Persons heard some or many Causes and given divers Judgments in Aula in their Court or Palace in some Causes wherein they had the assistance of the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench and when they did not do it personally by reason of their frequent Divertisements Addresses of Ambassadors from Foreign Princes or in respect of the many great Affairs and Cares of State and Government which could not afford them the time or leisure to do it did cause it to be done by their Authority and by their constituted Justices who Vicaria Potestate by as it were a Deputation Lieutenancy or Assignation to those onely purposes represented them and were impowered to do it the Courts of Justice in William the Conquerors time being called Justicia Regis the Justice of the King and the Judges or Justices in the Reign of King Henry the Second Justiciae Regis in the abstract the Kings Judges or Justices For the Kings Justice or Superiority was never yet by any Law or Reason absolutely or altogether conâined to his delegated Courts or authorized Judges or Justices or to any certain or determinate Place as that froward and powerful enough Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury could not but acknowledge when in a Parliament or Great Council holden in the Kings Court at Winchester by the Command of King William the Second or William Rufus in the Contest betwixt him and that King concerning that Archbishops resolution oâ going to Rome and the Kings refusing to give him Licence divers of the Lords and Bishops passed in and out betwixt them and at last the Archbishop himself went in unto him to expostulate and debate the Matter with him And in the making of the Constitutions of Clarendon in
the Reign of King Henry the Second when Thomas Becket the stubborn Archbishop of Canterbury having Judgement ready to be given against him by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in that Parliament or Great Council upon the Complaint of John Marshal for Injustice done unto him by the said Archbishop and his Defence heard Rex exigit Judicium The King demanded Judgement to be given against him But the Earls Barons and Bishops delaying of it and contending who as it hath been said in other cases should hang the Bell about the Cats Neck and begin the Vote or Sentence Rex hac audita de pronunciando Controversia motus est the King hearing the Controversie who should begin the Vote was displeased whereupon Henry de Blois Bishop of Winchester impositus dâcere tandem invitus pronunciavit being put to it to give his Vote did at length begin it In the second year of the Reign of King John that great Suit touching a Barony which William of Mowbray claimed against William of Stutuile which had depended from the Reign of King Henry the Second is said to have bin ended Consilio Regni voluntate Regis by the Kings Will and Advice of Parliament In the One and twentieth year of the Reign of King Henry the Third a Complaint being made to the King that Jordan Coventry one of the Sheriffs of London having by the Order of the Mayor and Aldermen of London arrested and taken divers persons that were offenders in Annoying the River of Thames with Kiddels upon Complaint made to the King he sent for the Mayor and Citizens and upon hearing of the Matter confirmed the Cities Jurisdiction convicted the Complainants Amerced every of them at Ten Pounds and adjudged the Amerciaments to the City In the Thirty eighth year of that Kings Reign upon a Quarrel betwixt some young men of that City and some of the Kings Servants the Londoners being despitefully used by them fell upon them and did beat them shrewdly who thereupon complaining to the King he Fined the Citizens to pay One thousand Marks In the one and fortieth year of his Reign being in the year 1256. he sate in the Court of Exchequer in Westminster Hall where he did make Orders for the Appearance of the Sheriffs and bringing in of their Accompts and Fined the Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs of London for Oppression and Wrongs done by them who submitted themselves in that place to the King And if so and the Records and Memorials as well of the Court of Exchequer as of that City do speak it there can be nothing within the pale or verge of Reason or the fancy or imagination of any whose Intellectuals are not in a Lethargy to make it either possible or rational that the King himself had not then and there the Preheminence or Courtesie afforded him to give or pronounce the Order or Judgments or that the Soveraignty as the Law in more inferior matters betwixt party and party amongst private persons doth sometimes adjudge it should be at that instant or part of time in abeiance or suspence and operate nothing or that the Barons of the Exchequer could at that Time by intendment of Law be supposed to represent the King when he was personally present it being by the Law of Nations a constant usage and custom settled and approved in the most parts of Christendom that the Governors of Cities and Forts do at the coming and personal Presence of their Soveraign deliver unto him upon their knees the Keys thereof and in all obedienee and humility receive them and their Authority again upon their departure and re-delivery And it is not yet gone out of the memory of man that Sir William Cokain Knight Lord Mayor of London when King James in a Great Solemnity came to St. Pauls Church did at Temple-Bar deliver upon his knees unto him the Keyes and Sword of the City and carried a Mace before him Or that it would not be Contrarium in objecto a Parcel of Contradictions that Esse at one and the same instant of Time can be a non esse idem non idem ibi non ibi the King should be understood not to be there when he was there and to be there onely virtually and in power and not present when he was there in his Person as well as in his Power Or that He should sit and be there onely as an Auditor or Spectator Or as Sir Edward Coke said concerning King James his personally sitting in the Court of Star-Chamber to consult but not in Judicio in Judgement when the Law and the Reason of the Law and the Fact and the Records and Memorials thereof do give so full an evidence against that Pseudo Doctrine and ill-grounded Opinion which the Learned Lawyers and Judges in the Reign of King Henry the Third did so little believe As Bracton discoursing where Actions Criminal by the Laws and Customs as well before his Time as in the Reign of King Henry the Third were to be heard and adjudged expresly concludeth with a Sciendum est quod in Curia Domini Regis debent terminari cum sit ibi poena corporalis infligenda hoc coram ipso rege si tangat personam suam sicut Crimen laesae Majestatis vel coram Justiciariis ad hoc specialiter assignatis si tangat personas privatas It is to be known or certain that Actions Criminal ought to be tryed in the Kings Court and that before the King himself if as in cases of Treason they concern the Person of the King because there is a corporal punishment to be inflicted or before Justices specially thereunto assigned if they concern private persons And gives the reason vita vero membrum hominum sunt in manu Domini Regis vel ad tuitionem vel ad paenam cum deliquerint for the lives and members of all the Kings Subjects are in the hand of the King either to defend or punish Habet enim plures Curias in quibus diversae actiones terminantur illarum Curiarum habet unam propriam sicut Aulam Regiam Justiciarios Capitales qui proprias causas Regis terminant aliorum omnium per quaerelam vel per privilegium sive libertatem ut si sit aliquis qui implacitari non debeat nisi coram ipso Domino Rege for he hath many Courts in which divers Actions are to be tryed And of those Courts hath one of his own as that of the Kings Palace and hath Chief Justices who are to hear and determine the proper Causes of the King and of all others upon complaint or by reason of priviledge or liberty as where a man sued or prosecuted ought not to be impleaded but before the King For in vain were many since the Conquest exempted by Priviledge not to be tryed before any but the King himself if our Kings did never use nor could in person hear and determine
under His Seal and Teste Me Ipso directed to all His Courts of Justice And are as Bracton saith Formata ad similitudinem Regulae Juris framed by and according to the Rules of Law whiâh warranting many of the Proceeding thereof are in the Assize betwixt Wimbish and the Lord Willoughby in Trinity Term in the sixth year of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth said and not denyed to be Law and the Act of the King but not of the Chancellor So as they who shall endeavour to impose upon other men that the King is not by Law presumed to be present in his Court of Kings Bench where the Records do mention the Judgements given therein to be coram Rege before the King as if he were personally present with the Judges of that Court who are assigned to assist Him may as to the Kings Power in matters of Justice and over the Judges and Courts delegated by Him do well to seek a reason which is justly to be feared will never be found why it should be Law or Reason for King Alfred in the discords or ignorance of his Subordinate Judges in the distribution of Justice to hear and determine the Causes Himself or for King Canutus long after to judge the Causes of such as complained unto him when our Bracton doth not at all doubt of it when he saith that the Judges nullam habent Authoritatem sed ab alio i. e. Rege sibi Commissam cum ipse qui delegat non sufficiat per se omnes Causas sive Jurisdictiones terminare they have no Authority but what they are intrusted with by the King who granted it when as he who delegated them is not able or sufficient by himself to hear aad determine all Causes in every Jurisdiction unto which our Register of Writs that Pharmacopeia Director and Magazine of Medicines and Remedies for many a Disease in the Estates and Affairs of the People which Justice Fitz Herbert in his Preface to his Book De Natura Brevium of the Nature of Writs calleth The Principles of the Law and the Foundation whereupon it dependeth and in Plowdens Commentaries is as to many things truly said to be the Foundation of our Laws and so Authentique as Brown Justice in the Case betwixt Willon and the Lord Barkley in the third year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth declared that all Writs were to pursue the Forms in the Register and it was enough to alledge so is the Register will easily assent and all our Books of the Law all the Practice and Usage of our Courts of Justice all our Records Close and Patent Rolls and our Kings hearing and determining of Differences betwixt the Common Law and Ecclesiastical Courts and Jurisdictions and their making of Orders to reconcile the Proceedings of the severall Judges thereof and the like betwixt the Admiralty Court and the Courts of Common Law ordered decided and agreed before King Charles the First and His Privy Council in the ninth year of His Reign the Judges in criminal Matters not seldom attending the King for a Declaration of His Will and Pleasure where a Reprieve Pardon or Stay of Execution shall be necessary will be as so many almost innumerable powerful and cogent Arguments to justifie it And a common and dayly Experience and the Testimony of so many Centuries and Ages past and the Forme used in our Writs of Scire Facias to revive Judgements after a year and a day according to the Statute of Westminster the 2. with the words Et quia volumus ea que in Curia nostra rite acta sunt debite executioni demandari because we would that those things which are rightly done in our Courts should be put in execution c. may bear witness of that Sandy Foundation Sir Edward Coke hath built those his great mistakings upon and those also that the King cannot propria Authoritate Arrest any man upon suspition of Treason or Felony when the Statute made in the third year of the Reign of King Edward the First expresly acknowledgeth that the King may Arrest or cause men to be Arrested as well as His Chief Justice without distinction in ordinary and civil or criminal matters and when by the beforemention'd Opinions of Sir Christopher Wray Lord Chief Justice of the Queens Bench Sir Edmond Anderson Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas and of all the Judges of England delivered under their hands in the Four and thirtieth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth it was acknowledged that She or the Lords of Her Privy Council might do it And in the before recited great Case of the Habeas Corpora in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr there was no question made but that the King might lawfully do it with a cause expressed in the Warrant And many a Nobleman and others hath in several of our Kings Reigns either upon suspition of Treason or Flagranti Crimine in or very near the acting of it or upon great Misdemeanors been Arrested by our Kings and Princes onely Command and sent Prisoners to the Tower of London As the Great Mortimer Earl of March by King Edward the Third the Pompous Cardinal Wolsey and Queen Ann of Bulloin by King Henry the Eighth the Duke of Northumberland by Queen Mary the Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Essex by Queen Elizabeth for Treason Robert Earl of Somerset and his Lady committed for Felony Sir Tho. Overbury for refusing to go Ambassador when he was sent by King James Henry Earl of Oxford for striking up a Great Lords heels in a Solemnity of a great Feast when the French Ambassador was entertained in Westminster Hall for presuming to offer to wash his hands after the King had washed in the Basin which as Lord Great Chamberlain of England he had holden to the King Thomas Earl of Arundel for marrying the Lord Matravers his Son to the Sister of the Duke of Lenox and Richmond without his Licence and Philip Earl of Pembroke and the said Lord Matravers for striking and scuffling with one another in the House of Peers in Parliament and some others by King Charles the First and some by His now Majesty and our Parliaments have many times in some Charges brought against offenders of the Weal Publique petitioned our Kings and Princes to do it and many others have been so committed in the Reigns almost of all our Kings and Princes of which every Age and History of this our Kingdom can give plentiful Examples which we may believe to have been done by good and legal Warrant when in all our many Parliaments and Complaints of the People therein such Arrests and Imprisonments have not been in the number of any of their complained Grievances for otherwise what Power Writ Authority or Warrant of a Judge or Justice of Peace could have seiz'd upon that Powerful Mortimer and taken him in Notingham Castle out of the amorous Embraces of Queen Isabel the
and unfitting a course or method of Government For can any man that is Master of the least grain of Reason or Prudence think it safe for a Kingdom so to restrain if it could be a Soveraign Prince when a person in time of Pestilence or otherwise shall with a Plague-Sore running upon him come into the presence of the King who in case of Leprosie when it was more frequent than now it is can for the preservation of His People from the infection thereof make His Writ de Leproso amovendo command the Leper to be removed to some other place that He should have no power to bid any of His Servants to cause him to be taken away or put in prison Or that King James when his Life was assaulted by the Assassinate which Earl Gowrey had appointed to murther him did transgress any Law of Scotland Nature or Nations when he did arrest and struggle with him until the loyal Sir John Ramsey came to his Rescue Or that that prudent Prince after his coming into England did break any Law of England Nature or Nations or not perform the Office of a King when by his own Authority he did without sending to the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench or a Justice of Peace for his Warrant cause Sir Thomas Knivet and others to apprehend Guydo Faux but some minutes before the Match should have been secretly and undiscovered laid in order to the firing of the Gunpowder and other Matterials which were shortly after to take fire for the accomplishment of the intended treason of him and his wicked Complices to destroy the King Prince Nobility and the Chiefest of his People assembled in Parliament and all that were in or near the Cities of London and Westminster by the Gunpowder Plot of blowing up the Houses of Parliament And whether a King may not in the like case of Contempt or Danger as well do it as he may do where a Souldier prest in the Kings Service upon a Certificate by the Captain into the Chancery being the Watch-Tower or Treasury of the Kings Justice that he absented himself send his Writ or Mandate to one of his Serjeants at Arms to take him which Sir Edward Coke saith may be done per Legem terrae by the Law of the Land and may upon a Certificate of an Abbot or Prior into the Chancery do the like by his Writ to the Sheriff to take a man professed in Religion that is Vagrant and alloweth it to be Lex Terrae a Legal Process so to do in honorem Religionis in honour and respect to Religion or may not as wel imprison a man for a Contempt as Discharge him Or why He may not Arrest or cause any man to be Arrested for Felony or Treason or but suspition thereof when Sir Edward Coke is of opinion any man may do in the Kings Name upon a common Fame or Voice or Arrest a man by warranty of Law and of his own Authority which woundeth another dangerously or keepeth company with a notorious Thief whereby he is suspected or if the King shall not upon necessity or extraordinary occasions be enabled to do it for that supposed rather than any reason at all that he ought not so to do in regard that no man can have an Action against Him for any wrong or injury done unto him by the King How have our Lawes and reasonable Customes for many Centuries and Ages past submitted unto and not at all complained of the Kings Seizure of Lands but suspected to be forfeited or of Lands aliened without Licence or pardon of Alienation and the like Or why should not our Kings have as much liberty as the holy King Edward the Confessour might have had if he would to have commanded a Thief to be apprehended for stealing in the Royal Lodgings when he bad him onely be gone lest Hugeline his Chamberlain should come in and take him Or as legally as King Edward the Third and his Council did commit one that was found arm'd in his Palace to the Marshalsea whence he could not be bayl'd or deliver'd until the Kings Will and Pleasure should be known Or as it was adjudged in the thirty nineth year of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth when in an Action of Trespass the Defendant justified the doing thereof by the Command of the King when he was neither Bayliff nor Officer of the Kings and it was adjudged by the Judges that he might so do without any Deed or Writing shewed for it or if they should mistake in their Arrests or Imprisonments of suspected Traytors or Felons should not have as much liberty as a Justice of Peace hath in criminal matters or as the Judges have in his Courts of Justice in civil Actions where the parties that mistake or bring their Actions where they should not or Arrest one man in stead of another are onely punished with Costs of Suit or Actions of False Imprisonment but not the Judges or Justices of Peace for howsoever some Flatterers when King Richard the Third having murthered his Nephews and usurped the Crown and sate one day in the High Court of Chancery had in some of the Pleadings or Causes heard before him alledged that the King could do no wrong and some of our Lawyers have since so much believed it as they have reduced it into a kind of Maxime and given it a place in some of their Arguments Reports Yet Bracton in the Reign of King Henry the Third and Justice Stamford in the Reign of Queen Mary did believe the King might unwillingly by Himself or His Officers or Ministers do wrong and declared the Law to be both in Bractons and Stamfords time that in such Cases the Subjects where they have any matter of Complaint or Grievance need not want their legal Remedies by Traverse Monstrans de Droit or Petition the reason of the latter being as Stamford saith because the Subject hath no other Remedy against the King but to supplicate him by Petition for the Dignity sake of the Person And a late Experience hath told us how a Dispute betwixt our two Houses of Parliament whether a Great Person accused of Delinquency might be Arrested and put under Custody before his Charge or Accusation could be made ready gave the Party opportunity to escape into the Parts beyond the Seas and the Disputants leisure and time enough to agree of the matter And it should be remote enough from any the suspition of Errour or over-credulity for any man to think an Arrest or Imprisonment by the immediate Command of the King in the case of Treason or Felony or but suspition of either of them not to be as legal as that of a Justice of Peace made by a Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England in his Name and by his Authority derived under him And those who will take out Sir Edward Coke's before mentioned Lessons and enter themselves into
peace in the said University as much as in him is And give Councell and help to the Chancellor ond Schollars of the same University to punish the disturbers and breakers of the peace there after the priviledges and Statutes of the University at all times when it shall be needful and put his help with all his Strength to defend the priviledges liberties and Customs of the said University and give the like oath unto his Undersheriffes and other his ministers when he shall come to the Town and Castle of Oxford in the presence of any who shall be deputed by the said University unto the which things the King will that his said Ministers shall be arcted and compelled The like Oath being to be taken by the Sheriffs of Cambridge and Huntington for the conversation of the rights and priviledges of the University of Cambridge Do the Jnns of Court or houses of law which for some Ages or Centuries past were appropriate and set apart for the Study of the Common lawes of England and other necessary parts of learning and endowments proper and fit to bear the sons of our Nobility and Gentry company within their houses and precincts claim and enjoy as they ought to do according to the law of Nations and the priviledges of all the Universities and places of Study in the Christian world A just and legal priviledge of a freedom from any Arrest or disturbance by the officers of any Subordinate Magistrate in matters not Capital or more then ordinary criminal And the Inner and Middle-Temples and Lincolns-Jnn being besides entituled to the like Exemption priviledge by a particular Immunity and Exemption granted anciently by some of our Kings of England long before they were Societies of law to the Owners and Proprietors of the Mannor of the New Temple then so called the old one being before scituate in or near Holborn and as well as the new one sometimes part of the possessions of the Knights Templers now containing the Inner and most part of the Middle-Temple and likewise the outer Temple without Temple-Bar extending it self as far as to part of Essex house garden and into New-street now called Chancery-Lane and Ficket or Fickelscroft now Lincolns-Inn fields upon part whereof Lincolns-Inn was built To be held sub eadem forma in the same manner as the honor or Earldom of Leicester and the Lands thereunto belonging were antiently holden with an Exemption or priviledge that no Justices Escheators Bayliffs or other Ministers or Officers of the King should enter or intermeddle therein of which the Successors and Owners and those as honourable as useful Collegiate nurseries of law and learning although they do not as our Universities and those which are in the parts beyond the Seas claim a conusance in causes and controversies at law wherein their Schollars Students and officers are concerned have been so careful to preserve those their Antient and necessary priviledges as they have upon any the least violation or attempt to bereave them thereof sallied out like so many young Lions and appeared to be the stout Propugnators and defenders thereof rescued such as have been Arrested within their Liberties whether any or none of the Society beaten and pumped the Catchpoles Serjeants at Mace or Bailiffs ignominiously shaved their heads and beards Anointed them with the costly Oyl or Syrrup of their houses of Offices or Jakes and at the Temple for a farewell thrown them into the Thames Do all men that have Liberties and Priviledges appertaining to their Estates or Persons or any Offices or Places which they hold Summon the best of their Cares and Industry to maintain them and shall it be a crime or disgrace to the Kings Servants either to be entituled unto or endeavor to Assert them Shall it be deemed just Legal and Rational that the City of London should be so carefull of their Customs and Liberties granted not only by King Henây the first but confirmed by divers Kings and Queens of England and many of their Acts of Parliament as no longer ago than in the year of our Lord 1669. to Claim in their Act or common Councel that no Citizen is to be compelled to plead without the Walls of their City and their Freemen are bound by Oath as well as by many Acts of Common Councel of that City not to Sue one another out of the City where they may have remedie in their own Courts and to maintain the Franchises and Liberties thereof and that the Warrant of leuetur quaerela for the removing of any Action or Plaint depending in any of the Sheriffs Courts of that City into the Mayors Court brought by a Serjeant at Mace and Ministers of the Mayors Court shall not be refused or shall it be taken or beleeved to be inconvenient for that City or their Freemen to be drawn or enforced to Plead or be Prosecuted out of their own Courts And shall it not be as reasonable for the King in the case of his own Houshold and Domestick Servants to protect them from being disturbed in his Service by any Arrests without his Licence Doth every Sheriff of England and Wales at his admission into his Office swear that as far as hâ can or may he shall truly keep the Kings Rights and all that belongeth unto the Crown and shall not assent to decrease lessen diminish or conceal any of the Kings Rights or his Franchises and whensoever he shall have knowledge that the Kings Rights or the Rights of his Crown be withdrawn be it in Land Rent Franchises or Suits or any other thing he shall do his power to make them to be restored to the King again and if he may not do it shall certifie the King or some of his Councel thereof and can any Sheriff of England and Wales without the acknowledgment of a gross ignorance with any safety of their Oaths or Consciences knowingly Arrest or cause to be Arrested any of the Kings Servants against the Will of his or their Sovereign Doth a Custom or civility so far prevail with the Sheriffs of London and their Clarks as when any Action is entred against any Alderman of the City or the Sword-bearer or other Officer of the Lord Mayor they will not Arrest an Alderman man or take away the Lord Mayors Sword-Bearer from before him untill they have given them a civil and private notice thereof whereby to prevent the disgrace or give them time to provide against it or procure a Truce or quiet And shall the Servants of their Masters Master if they were not more justly than they entituled to their Antient and Legal Priviledges not be so much respected which his late Majesty thought to be as undecent as Inconvenient when upon some disrespects shewed by some of that City in their endeavors to inforce upon some of his Servants the Office of Constable or Church-warden he demanding of the Lord Mayor of London whom he had caused to Attend him upon that Complaint and
untill it was by that prudent Prince restrained and limited to the Authority and Jurisdiction which it now enjoys was much more large and extensive than now it is and that of the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings House whose power and priviledge over that part of the Kings Servants which are under his Authority being exempt from that of the Lord Steward having been not by any Act of Parliament prohibited may not be thought to exceed the power and auâhority inherent in their Offices and places when they shall punish or commit to prison any who shall attempt to violate or infringe the honour and priviledges of the Kings House or Servants derived unto them from his Supreme Authority who having Ordinariam Jurisdictionem in regno suo pares non habet neque superiores an Ordinary and Supreme Jurisdiction and hath neither Peer nor Superior may as well protect his Servants in his affairs and business in his House or about his Person and punish any that shall hinder them therein as the Judges in his Courts of Justice who neither have or can claim any other power or authority than what he delegates or entrusteth them withall do upon all occasions in the Case of their Officers Clerks or menial Servants They therefore who shall so much suffer their reason and understanding to wander and be mislead as to deny the Kings most Honourable Privy Councell or any other Court within their Cognisance Power and Authority tueri Jurisdictionem such a coercive power as may support their Jurisdiction may think but never find they have any ground or cause for it and if they please to tarry for a conviction untill the never failing unhappy consequences shall bring them too late to acknowledge that which in viridi observantia by late abundant sad experiments is more then a little visible in the disorders of the present Church Government occasioned by the reverend Governors want of power who having their hands as it were tyed behind them are made to be as good old Ely admonishing and reproving to no purpose and how little the directive or commanding Power of Laws will signifie where the coercive shall be absent may bitterly repent it And will meet with as little reason to second or assist their opinion that a priviledged person imprisoned contrary to his priviledge is so in the custody of the Law as not to be able to claim or make use of his priviledge to release or discharge him when the frequent use of discharging men out of prison by Habeas Corpus Supersedeas or Writs of Priviledge and their Bayles or Sureties given for their appearances discharged And in matters of Parliament Priviledge can teach and prove the contrary for in the Case of Trewynniard a Burgess of Parliament in the Court of Kings-Bench in Easter and Trinity Term in the 38th year of the Raign of K. Henry the 8th the said Trewynniard was discharged by his Priviledge although he was arrested upon an Utlary after Judgement and the Judges of the Court of Kings Bench did adjudge and declare That every Priviledge is by prescription and every praescription which soundeth for the Common-weal is good although it be a prejudice to any private person And that such a priviledge hath been alwayes granted by the King to his Commoners at the request of their Speaker the first day of the sitting of Parliament And it is common reason that forasmuch as the King and all the Realm hath an interest in the Body of every of its Members it seemeth that the private commodity of any particular man ought not to be regarded for it is a maxime That magis dignum trahit ad se minus dignum the more worthy is to be preferred before the lesse and concluded That the Parliament is the most High Court and hath more Priviledges then any Court of the Realm and that in such a Case every Burgess is to be priviledged where the Action is but at the Suit of a Subject and that by such a temporary discharge the Execution is not discharged but remaineth When as men protected that were not the Kings Houshold Servants had their Protections allowed aâter the commencement of the Action sometimes after Issue joyned at other times of the nisi prius or Triall at other times after the Verdict given and sometimes at the dayes in Banck and where any Defendant neither protected or priviledged was imprisoned he was not so believed to be in the Custody of the Law but that the Judges or any one Judge of the Court out of which the Process or Writ issued might not as well out of the Term as in the Term grant in their Subordinate Jurisdiction a Supersedeas quia improvià e or erronice emanavit because there was some Error or mistaking in the awarding or granting of the Writ by which he was taken And those Authentique Books of the Register of Writs old and new Book of Entries and the presidents therein contained will sufficiently testifie that arrests of priviledged persons and the goods or persons of priviledged persons have been and ought to be discharged from Attachments Arrests and Imprisonments and that which they would call the Custody of the Law by Habeas Corpus Supersedeas or Writs of priviledge and their Bayles or Sureties given for their Appearances discharged But however the pride and disrespectfull and disobedient humors of too many of our Nation be now so much in fashion as to quarrell with every thing of Authority and the Regalities of their Soveraign the dayes of old and Ages past will evidence that the before mentioned Priviledges of the Kings Servants in Ordinary were for ought appears to the contrary believed to be so legall and reasonable CHAP. VIII That the aforesaid Priviledge of the Kings Servants in Ordinary hath been legally imparted to such as were not the Kings Servants in Ordinary but imployed upon some temporary and casuall affairs abroad and out of the Kings House AS it was desired and thought fit and necessary to be communicated to such as were not the Kings Servants in Ordinary or his Domesticks but only imployed as extraordinaries upon some of his special affairs or occasions which were but Temporary and to that end it was requisite that some signification or notice should be given that they were so imployed and that they should not be arrested imprisoned or disturbed in it but be protected from it the like being also done when any of the Kings Servants in Ordinary where imployed out of the Kings House or Pallace by their Writs of Protection under the great Seal of England for otherwise probably it would not have been known that they were his Servants either ordinary or extraordinary or what was their business And therefore in the Register of Writs a Book in the Statute of Westminster the second made in the 13th year of the Reign of K. Edward the first in the year of our Lord 1285 called the Register of the Chancery