Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	baron_n	earl_n	king_n	15,398	5	3.8090	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11864	A briefe discourse, concerning the power of the Peeres and Comons of Parliament, in point of judicature written by a learned antiquerie, at the request of a peere, of this realme.	Selden, John, 1584-1654.; Cotton, Robert, Sir, 1571-1631.	1640 (1640)	STC 22165; ESTC S120646	3,655	12

A BRIEFE DISCOVRSE CONCERNING THE POVVER OF THE PEERES and Comons of Parliament in point of Judicature VVRITTEN BY A LEARned Antiquerie at the request of a Peere of this REALME Printed in the Yeare 1640. A BRIEFE DISCOVRSE Concerning the power of the Peeres and Commons of Parliament in point of Judicature SIR to give you as short an account of your desires as I can I must crave leave to lay you as a ground the frame or first modell of this state When after the period of the Saxon time Harold had lifted himselfe into the Royall Seat the Great men to whom but lately hee was no more then equall either in fortune or power disdaining this Act of arrogancy called in William then Duke of Normandy a Prince more active then any in these Westerne parts and renowned for many victories he had fortunately atchieved against the French King then the most potent Monarch in Europe This Duke led along with him to this worke of glory many of the younger sons of the best families of Normandy Picardy and Flanders who as undertakers accompanied the undertaking of this fortunate man The Usurper slaine and the Crowne by warre gained to secure certaine to his posterity what he had so suddenly gotten he shared out his purchase retaining in each County a portion to support the Dignity Soveraigne which was stiled Demenia Regni now the ancient Demeanes and assigning to others his adventurers such portions as suited to their quality and expence retaining to himselfe dependancy of their personall seruice except such Lands as in free Almes were the portion of the Church these were stiled Barones Regis the Kings immediate Freeholders for the word Baro imported then no more As the King to these so these to their followers subdivided part of their shares into Knights fees and their Tennants were called Barones Comites or the like for we finde as in the Kings Writ in their Writs Baronibus suis Francois Anglois the soveraigne gifts for the most part extending to whole Counties or Hundreds an Earle being Lord of the one and a Baron of the inferiour donations to Lords of Towne-ships or Mannors As thus the Land so was all course of Judicature divided even from the meanest to the highest portion each severall had his Court of Law preserving still the Mannor of our Ancestours the Saxons who jura per pages reddebant and these are still tearmed court-Court-Barons or the Freeholders Court twelue usually in number who with the Thame or chiefe Lord were Judges The Hundred was next where the Hundredus or Aldermanus Lord of the Hundred with the cheife Lord of each Townshippe within their lymits judged Gods people observed this forme in the publike Centureonis decam Judicabant plebem omni tempore The County or Generale placitum was the next this was so to supply the defect or remedy the corruption of the inferior Vbi Curiae Dominorum probantur defecisse pertinet ad vice comitem Provinciarum the Iudges here were Comites vice comites Barones Comitatus qui liberas in hoterras habeant The last supreme proper to our questiō was generale placitum aupud London universalis Synodus in Charters of the Conquerour Capitalis curia by Glanvile Magnum Commune consilium coram Rege et magnatibus suis In the Rolles of Henry the 3. It is not stative but summoned by Proclamation Edicitur generale placitum apud London saith the Booke of Abingdon whether Epium Duces principes Satrapae Rectores Causidici ex omni parte confluxerunt ad istam curiam saith Glanvile Causes were referred Propter aliquam dubitationem quae Emergit in comitatu cum Comitatus nescit dijudicare Thus did Ethelweld Bishop of Winchester transferre his suit against Leostine from the County ad generale placitum in the time of King Etheldred Queene Edgine against Goda from the County appealed to King Etheldred at London Congregatis principibus sapaientibus Angliae a suit between the Bishops of Winchester and Durham in the time of Saint Edward Coram Episcopis principibus Regni in presentia Regis ventilate finita In the tenth yeere of the Conquerour Episcopi Comites Barones Regni potestate adversis provinciis ad universalem Synodum pro causis audiendis tractandis Convocati saith the Book of Westminster And this continued all along in the succeeding Kings raigne untill towards the end of Henry the third AS this great Court or Councell consisting of the King and Barons ruled the great affaires of State and controlled all inferiour Courts so were there certaine Officers whose transcendent power seemed to bee set to bound in the execution of Princes wills as the Steward Constable and Marshall fixed upon Families in fee for many ages They as Tribunes of the people or ex plori among the Athenians growne by unmanly courage fearefull to Monarchy fell at the feete and mercy of the King when the daring Earle of Leicester was slaine at Evesham This chance and the deare experience Hen. the 3. himselfe had made at the Parliament at Oxford in the 40. yeare of his raigne and the memory of the many straights his Father was driven unto especially at Rumny-mead neare Stanes brought this King wisely to beginne what his successour fortunately finished in lessoning the strength and power of his great Lords and this was wrought by searching into the Regality they had usurped over their peculiar Soveraignes wherby they were as the Booke of Saint Albans termeth them Quot Dominum tot Tiranni and by the weakning that hand of power which they carried in the Parliaments by commanding the service of many Knights Citizens and Burgesses to that great Councell Now began the frequent sending of Writs to the Commons their assent not onely used in money charge and making Lawes for before all ordinances passed by the King and Peeres but their consent in judgements of all natures whether civill or criminall In proofe whereof I will produce some few succeeding Presidents out of Record When Adamor that proud Prelate of Winchester the Kings halfe brother had grieved the State by his daring power he was exiled by joynt sentence of the King the Lords Commons and this appeareth expressely by the Letter sent to Pope Alexander the fourth expostulating a revocation of him from banishment because he was a Church-man and so not subject to any censure in this the answer is Si Dominus Rex Regni majores hoc vellent meaning his revocation Communitas tamen ipsius ingressū in Angliā iam nullatemus sustineret The Peeres subsigne this Answer with their names and Petrus de Mountford vice totius Communitatis as speaker or proctor of the cōmons For by that stile Sir John Tiptofe Prolocutor affirmeth under his Armes the Deed of Intaile of the Crowne by King Henry the 4. in the 8. year of his raigne for all the Commons The banishment of the

two Spencers in the 15. of Edward the second Prelati Comites Barones et les autres Peeres de la terre Communes de Roialme give consent and sentence to the revocation and reversement of the former sentence the Lords and Commons accord and so it is expressed in the Roll. In the first of Edw. the 3. when Elizabeth the widdow of Sir John de Burgo complained in Parliament that Hugh Spencer the yonger Robert Boldock and William Cliffe his instruments had by duresse forced her to make a Writing to the King whereby shee was despoiled of all her inheritance sentence is given for her in these words Pur ceo que avis est al Evesques Counts Barones autres grandes a tout Cominalte de la terre que le dit escript est fait contre ley tout manere de raison si fuist le dit escript per agard del Parliam dampue elloques al livre a la dit Eliz. In An. 4. Edw. 3. it appeareth by a Letter to the Pope that to the sentence given against the Earle of Kent the Commons were parties aswell as well as the Lords Peeres for the King directed their proceedings in these words Comitibus Magnatibus Baronibus aliis de Communitate dicti Regni ad Parliamentum illud congregatis injunximus ut super his discernerent judicarent quod rationi et justitiae conveniret habere prae oculis solum Deum qui eum concordi unanimi sententia tanquam reum criminis laesoe majestatis morti adjudicarent ejus sententia c. When in the 50. yeere of Ed. 3. the Lords had pronounced the sentence against Richard Lions otherwise then the Commons agreed they appealed to the King and had redresse and the sentence entred to their desires When in the first yeere of Richard the second William Weston and John Jennings were arraigned in Parliament for surrendring certaine Forts of the Kings the Commons were parties to the sentence against them given as appeareth by a Memorandum ānexed to that Record In the first of Hen. the 4. although the Commons referre by protestation the pronouncing of the sentence of deposition against King Rich. the 2. unto the Lords yet are they equally interessed in it as it appeareth by the Record for there are made Proctors or Commissioners for the whole Parliament one B. one Abbot one E. one Baron 2. Knights Gray and Erpingham for the Commons and to inferre that because the Lords pronounced the sentence the point of judgement should be onely theirs were as absurd as to conclude that no authority was best in any other Commissioner of Oyer and Terminer then in the person of that man solely that speaketh the sentence In 2. Hen. 5. the Petition of the Commons importeth no lesse then a right they had to act and assent to all things in Parliament and so it is answered by the King and had not the adjournall Roll of the higher house beene left to the sole entry of the Clarke of the upper House who either out of the neglect to observe due forme or out of purpose to obscure the Commons right to flatter the power of those he immediately served there would have bin frequent examples of al times to cleer this doubt and to preserve a just interest to the Cōmon-wealth and how conveniently it suites with Monarchy to maintaine this forme lest others of that well framed body knit under one head should swell too great and monstrous It may be easily thought for Monarchy againe may sooner groane under the weight of an Aristocracie as it once did then under Democracie which it never yet either felt or fear'd FINIS Liber S. Alban fo. 20. ● An. 44. H. 3. 〈◊〉 orig. sub ●igil A●●H ● Rot. Parl ●● E. 3. vel ● Prelation●● Parliam 1. Ed. 3. Rot 11. 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈…〉