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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 suâ—t 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
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 Offâ—cers 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
to London about His Majesties special Service and that being performed to return without any their let molestation or Impediment The eighteenth of November 1626 in the case of Robert With and Susan His Wife who had Petitioned him for leave to take the benefit of His Majesties Laws against one Mr Burton and obteined his Lordships Order for their Relief therein if he gave them not satisfaction within three moneths after the sight thereof yet being after given to understand that the said Mr. Burton who was but a Surety and in that respect deserved some Commiseration had offered them very reasonable satisfaction which was refused his Lordship being desirous to understand the Nature of the debt with the qualities and reasons of Master Burtons offers and their refusal did refer the Examination thereof unto Sir Robert Rich and Sir Charles Caesar Knights two of the Masters of the Chancery to mediate an Accord betwixt them or otherwise to Certifie and Report the true state of the business betwixt them and in the mean time required them as they would answer the contrary at their peril that they forbear to make use of his former Order or any other whatsoever the which for that purpose he did utterly revoke and annihilate The three and twentieth of November 1626 being the second year of the Reign of that pious King Charles the Martyr John Durat and William Garnat were by the said Lord Chamberlains warrant apprehended by a Messenger of the Kings upon the complaint of Thomas Wadlow The sixth day of December in the same year the said Lord Chamberlain granted his Warrant for the apprehension of Henry Cartar Bayard a Serjeant and John Wright his Yeoman upon the complaint of Mr. Simpson the Queens Jeweller The ninteenth day of January in the same year Thomas Marten Haberdasher of London was by the like Authority apprehended at the Complaint of Captain Fortescue The eighth of May 1627 in the third year of His said Majesties Reign James Palmer of Leicester was by a like Warrant apprehended upon the complaint of Henry Stanford a Yeoman of the Guard The sixteenth of July 1627 a Warrant was granted by the said Lord Chamberlain to apprehend Francis Hawker a Cook and William Fulk Servant to Mr. Howard upon the Complaint of Joane Hewet whose husband being Servant to Mr. Boreman His Majesties Locksmith and employed by him in His Majesties Service was by them hurt and wounded The seventeenth of July 1627 the said Lord Chamberlain sent his Letter unto Mr. Atkinson for the respiting of an Order probably for a Licence to take his course at Law against one Mr. Thomas Wood until the end of Michaelmas Term 1627 withal advising him to forbear all further Prosecution against the said Master Wood or that he should hear further from his Lordship The fifteenth of September 1627 a Warrant signed by the said Lord Chamberlain was directed unto all Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs c. not to hinder or molest Dixi Hickman Esq Gentleman Usher to the Queen of Bohemia whilst he was here Imployed about Her Service The thirtieth of September 1627 a Warrant was granted by him for the apprehension of William Wiltshire Under Sheriff of Hampshire and Robert Prime aliâs Island a Bayliff upon the complaint of Sir George Hastings and being the tenth of November following thereupon committed to the Marshalseys and endeavouring to procure his release by an Habeas Corpus the said Lord Chamberlain Issued out another Warrant bearing Date the nine and twentieth of that November to detein him with Certificate that his first Commitment and that warrant for his Commitment was by his Majesties Special Commandment The twelfth day of October in the aforesaid year granted his Warrant for the apprehension of one Andrews a Constable of Petty France upon the complaint of one Ward Yeoman of the Guard The two and twentieth of January next following for the apprehension of Francis Foster and divers others for Arresting of John Smith His Majesties Girdler The tenth of March next following wrote his letter to the Lord Mayor Sheriffs and Recorder of York in the behalf of Robert Metham a sworn Messenger in Ordinary appointed to attend upon the Receiver of Yorkshire upon his Complaint for being there Arrested without leave In the year of our Lord 1628 granted his Warrant for the apprehension of Richard Harris Thomas Rosse of Leaden-hall-street London Merchants John Offley of Hampshire and a Servant to the Clerk of the Peace for Middlesex upon the Complaint of Francis de Champer Did write his letter to the Lord Mayor of London acquainting him with the Arrests and Imprisonments of Mr. George Morgan and others of his Majesties Servants and desired his Lordship to give notice to the Sheriffes of London and other Officers in London that they forbear to Arrest or Imprison His Majesties Servants without acquainting his Lordship therewith who promised upon such occasions to do Justice Grant a Warrant for the apprehension of Robert Armstrong for the Arresting of the Post Master of Saint Albans And the like to apprehend William Martin of Itham in the County of Kent upon the Complaint of Anthony Hobbes one of the Yeomen of the Guard for an Attachment of his Horse and a Warrant or Letter to discharge the Apprentices of the King and Queens Watermen from being Imprest for Sea Service in these words viz. Whereas I understand that some of the Apprentices and Servants of the King and Queens Water-men have lately been Imprest for His Majesties Service at Sea These are to require you Immediately upon the sight hereof to cause them to be released and discharged And that hereafter you forbear to Imprest them the said Water-men or their Servants they being Obliged unto a daily Attendance upon His Majesties Person and the Queens And for so doing this shall be your Warrant And the sixteenth day of February in the same year after His Majesties assent by Act of Parliament unto the Petition of Right which was the six and twentieth day of June in the year aforesaid upon an abuse committed upon the Persons of Mr. Nicholas Laneir and other His Majesties Servants in Ordinary by haling them to Prison in an unwarrantable and barbarous manner the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council amongst which was the Lord Keeper Coventrey did by their Letter to Sir Richard Deane then Lord Mayor of London greatly blame him for the permitting of the same in the words following viz. AFter our Hearty Commendations to your Lordship Whereas it is come to the knowledge of His Majesty and this Board that upon a light Affray or Breach of Peace fallen out in the Exchange wherein Master Nicholas Laneir and other His Majesties Servants in Ordinary mentioned in the Petiâ—ion which we send you inclosed happened to be interessed That the Constables and other Officers who came under pretense of Keeping the Peace did by colour of their Office notwithstanding they knew them to be His Majesties Servants in an unwarrantable
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
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 Bildâ—d the Sâ—uhite 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
I could perceive trodden by any but Your Lordships most Humble Servant Fabian Philipps THE TABLE OR Contents of the Chapters THat there is a greater Honour due unto the Palace and House of the King Then unto any of the houses of his Subjects Chap. I. 4 That the Business and Affairs of the King about which any of his Servants or Subjects are imployed are more considerable and to be regarded then the Business and Affairs of any of the People Chap. II. 29 That the Kings Servants in ordinary are not to be denied a more than ordinary Priviledge or respect nor are to be compelled to appear by Arrest or otherwise in any Courts of Justice out of the Kings House without leave or Licence of the Lord Chamberlain or other the Officers of the Kings Houshold to whom it appertaineth first had and obteyned Chap. III. 38 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 Chap. IV. 244 That the Kings Servants whilst they are in his Service ought not to be Utlawed or Prosecuted in Order thereunto without leave or Licence first obteyned of the King or the great Officers of his most Honourable Houshold under whose several Jurisdictions they do Officiate Chap. V. 250 That the Kings established and delegated Courts of Justice to Administer Justice to his People are not to be any Bar or hindrance to his Servants in ordinary in their aforesaid Antient Just and Legal Rights and Priviledges Chap. VI. 289 That the King or the great Officers of his Houshold may punish those who do 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 Chap. VII 310 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 were imployed upon some Temporary and Casual Affairs abroad and out of the Kings House Chap. VIII 318 That the Kings granting Protections under the Great Seal of England to such as are his Servants in ordinary for their Persons Lands and Estates 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 have 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 Chap. IX 343 That our Kings some of which had more than his nâ—w Majesty hath have or had no greater number of Servants in Ordinary than is or hath been necessary for their Occasions Safety well being State Honour Magnificence and Majesty And that their Servants waiting in their Turns or Courses are not without leave or Licence as aforesaid to be Arrested in the Intervals of their waiting or Attendance Cap. X. 355 That the King being not to be limited to a number of his Servants in Ordinary is not in so great a variety of Affairs and contingencies wherein the publick may be concerned to be restrained to any certain number of such as he shall admit to be his Servants extraordinary Chap. XI 365 That the Subjects of England had heretofore such a regard of the King and his Servants as not to bring or commence their Actions where the Law allowed them against such of his Servants which had grieved or Injured them with ut a remedie first Petitioned for in Parliament Chap. XII 375 That the Clergy of England in the height of their Priviledges Encouragement and Protection by the Papall overgrown Authority did in many cases lay aside their Thunderbolts and Power of Excommunications appeals to the Pope and obtaining his Interdictions of Kingdoms 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 Chap. XIII 389 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 Publick Chap. XIV 392 That the Dukes Marquesses Count Palatines Earls Viscounts and Barons of England and the Bishops as Barons have and do enjoy their Priviledges and freedom from Arrests or Imprisonment of their Bodies in Civil and Personal Actions As Servants extraordinary and attendants upon the Person State and Majesty of the King in Order to his Government Weal Publick and safety of him and his People And not only as Peers abstracted from other of the Kings Ministers or Servants in Ordinary Chap. XV. 413 That many the like Priviledges and Praeheminences are and have been antiently by the Civil and Caesarean Laws and the Municipal Laws and Customs of many other Nations granted and allowed to the Nobility thereof Chap. XVI 445 That the Immunities and Priviledges granted and permitted by our Kings of England unto many of their People and Subjects who were not their Servants in Ordinary do amount unto as much and in some more than what our Kings Servants in Ordinary did or do now desire to enjoy Chap. XVII 466 That many of the People of England by the Grace and Favour of our Kings and Princes or along permission usâ—ge 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 Servanes Chap. XVIII 489 That those many other Immunities and Priviledges have neither been abolished or so much as murmured at by those that have yeilded an Assent and Obedience thereunto although they have at some times and upon some Occasions received some Loss Damage or Inconveniences thereby Chap. XIX 494 That the Power and care of Justice and the distribution thereof is and hath been so Essential and Radical to Monarchy and the constitution of this Kingdom as our Kings of England have as well before as since the Conquest taken into their Cognisance divers Causes which their established Courts of Justice either could not remedie or wanted Power to determine have removed them from other Courts to their own Tribunals and propria authoritate caused Offenders for Treason or Felony to be Arrested and may upon Just and Legal Occasions respite or delay Justice Chap. XX. 503 That a care of the Honour and Reverence due unto the
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 â—itting 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
coming to Rome to see the Emperor Nero was Commanded to lay by his Sword which he refusing as supposing it to be dishonourable to himself was rather contented to have it as it was nailed in the Scabbard it being a Custome at Rome Nè quis in domo seâ— Palatio principis arma deferret sine ejusdem permissione that no man in the Palace of the Prince was without his Licence to Wear a Sword although in other Places it was dishonourable for a Souldier not to Wear a Sword By a Constitution or Law of the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinianus the one of the West and the other of the East made about the year of Christ 385. Consecratae sibi aedes id est Inclita palatia ab omnium privatorum usu communi habitatione exceptae fuerunt The consecrated Houses set apart for the Emperors that is to say their Illustrious Palaces were not to be made use of by any private person or to be inhabited by them And many Ages after Theodoricus King of the Gothes and Romans though descended from a Rude and Barbarous Nation who were more used to Cottages then Courts Stiles his Palace Potentiae Imperii decora facies the Representation or Beauty of the Power of his Empire Cum Legatis sub admiratione the wonder of Forraign Embassadors Et prima fronte talis Dominus esse Creditur quale ejus habitaculum comprobatur and the Master of the House and his Honour and Reputation is measured by his House By the old Almaine Laws made in the Raign of Clotharius King of France In the year of our Lord 560. Si quis in Curte Ducis hominem occiderit â—ut illic ambulantem aut inde revertentem triplici were gildo eum solvat If any should slay a man in the Dukes Court in his going or coming thither or his return from thence he was to forfeit as much as the were gild or mulct for the amends should amount unto By the Laws of the old Baivarians or Bavarians confirmed by Dagobert King of France In the year of our Lord 633. Si quis in Curte Ducis scandalum commiserit ut ibi pugna fiat per superbiam suam vel ebrietatem quidquid ibi factum fuerit omnia secundum legem component propter stultitiam suam in publico componat quadraginta solidos si servus est alicujus qui haec commisit manus perdat nullus unquam in Curte Ducis presumat scandalum committere If any shall do or Commit in the Dukes Court any thing which is scandalous and shall make any quarrel by his Pride or Drunkenness he shall according to the Law compound for it and pay forty shillings for his folly and if he be a Servant which did it shall loose his hand For no man is to presume to do any thing scandalous in the Dukes Court. By the Laws of the Longobards Written or compiled about the year of our Redeemer 637. Si quis in Consilio vel in quolibet conventu scandalum commiserit noningentis solidis sit culpabilis Regi si quis intra palatium ubi Rex praeest scandalum perpetrare praesumpserit animae suae incurrat periculum aut animam suam redimat si obtinere potuerit à Rege If any shall do any Scandalous Act in the Council or Assembly he shall be fined nine hundred shillings to the King If in the Kings Court or Palace his life shall be in danger to be lost Unless he can obtain the Kings pardon a less fine if it be in the City where the King is not Resident and more in a City where he is And so much honour was not only in the Civil Law and Rescripts of the Emperors but of the Gothish and other Northern Nations attributed to the house of the Emperors or Kings as it was frequently stiled Divina Domus which wiâ—hout any suspicion of Idolatry might well be afforded unto the House or Residence of God's Vicegerents when holy Writ sticks not to say they are tanquam Dii as Gods Which occasioned Witlafe or Witlase King of the Mercians being some of the Provinces in England now known by the name of Gloucestershire Worcestershire Oxfordshire Staffordshire and many other of the Neighbour Counties when about the year of our Lord 825. he made a Confirmation to the Abby of Croyland in Lincolneshire where he had hid and saved himself when he fled from his Enemies of all their Landâ— and granted them many Priviledges ratified by a Concilium Pan Anglicum or Parliament holden at London the 26 day of May Anno Dom. 833. By Egbert King of the West Saxons and Witlase King of the Mercians to give them a Priviledge that Quicunque in Regno suo pro quocunque delicto reus vel legibus obnoxius Whosoever in his Kingdom guilty of any oâ—fence or obnoxious to the Laws should fly to the Abby or Island of Croyland he should be there free from any Arrest or pursuit sicut in Asylo vel in Camera Regis propria as in a Sanctuary or in the Kings own Chamber then understood not to be likely to be molested with any Arrest or Imprisonment of any that were attending in it And put our wise and prudent King Alfred who sate in the Royal Throne of our Brittaine about the year of our Lord 877. In the more incult and fierce behaviour of our English and Saxon Ancestors who thought his House deserved a Priviledge not allowed to Ordinary or Subjects houses in minde to make a Law as Mr. Lambard in his Latine Version of our Saxon Laws reciteth it Sapientum adhibito Consilio by the advice of his wise men much like a Parliament qui in Regia Aula dimicarit ferrumvè distrinxerit Capitor Regem penes arbitrium vitae necisque ejus esto That he that should fight or draw his Sword in the Kings Palace or Court should be taken or punished with death or otherwise as the King pleased Which if the Annals of Winchester may as they ought to be credited were but the Laws of the Brittons translated into â—he Saxon Language by the assistance probably of Asser Menevensis or of S. David's a Britton who was invited to his Court by that worthy Prince and made as it were one of his Domesticks or Maenials The Courts and Palaces of our Ancient Kings being likewise such Asylums or Priviledged places as by a Law made by King Edmond who Raigned in the year of our blessed Lord 940. Si quiâ— ad Templum Oppidumvè Regium confugerit eumque alius oppugnarit damnovè affecerit he which should hurt or molest any that fled to the Temple or the Kings House should be punished but withal enacted that non fore ei qui sanguinem humanum effuderit suffugio domum meam ni prius Deo ac Caesi cognatis cumulatè satiffecerit praeterea impleverit quodcunque ei ab Episcopo in cujus Dioecesi acciderit imperatum the Kings House
senescalli marescalli manifestum dampnum non modicum and manifest prejudice of the Office of the aforesaid Steward and Mareschall and no small damage ad quorum officium non ad alium Summonitiones attachiamenta infra Palatium domini Regis pertineat faciend When as it belongeth to their Office or Places and not unto any other to make or cause summons or attachments within the Kings House or Palace etiam ad dampnum predict Comitis quinque mille librarum and likewise to the damage of the said Earl 5000 l. Whereupon the said Prior and Bogo confessing the Citation but pleading that they were ignorant that the place aforesaid was exempt and that they did not understand that any contempt was Committed against the King or any prejudice done to his Officers by the Citation aforesaid and in all things submitting unto the Kings grace good will and pleasure were Committed Prisoners to the Tower of London there to remain during the Kings Pleasure and being afterwards Bailed the said Bogo paid to the King a fine of 2000 marks and gave security to the Earl for 1000 l. which by the intercession of the Bishop of Durham and others of the Kings Counsel was afterwards remitted unto 100 l and the Prior was left to the Judgement or Proces of the Exchequer And upon a Citation served in the Kings Palace at Westminster in the 21 th year of the Raign of King Edward the first upon Joane Countess of Warren then attending the Queen upon a Libel of Divorce at the Suite of Matilda de Nyctford it was upon full examination of the Cause in Parliament adjudged the King being present in these words Quod praedictum Palatium Domini Regis est locus exemptus ab omni Jurisdictione ordinaria tam Regiae dignitatis Coronae suae quà m libertatis Ecclesiae Westmonaster maximè in praesentia ipsius Domini Regis tempore Parliamenti sui ibidem Ita quod Nullus summonitiones seu Citationes ibidem faciat praecipuè illis qui sunt de sanguine Domini Regis quibus major reverentia quam aliis fieri debet Consideratum est quod Officiar ' Committatur Turri London ibidem custodiatur ad voluntatem Domini Regis that the said Palace of the King is a place freed from all ordinary Jurisdiction aswel by reason of the Kings Crown and Dignity Royal as the Liberty of the Church of Westminster but more especially of the Kings presence in the time of Parliament so as none may presume to make summons or Citations there and especially to or upon those which are of the blood Royal to whom a greater Reverence then to others is due The Kings Palace at Westminster having as Sir Edward Coke saith the Liberty and Priviledge that no Citations or Summons are to be made with in it and that Royal Priviledge is saith he not only appropriated to the Kings Palace at Westminster but to all his Palaces where his Royal Person resides and such a Priviledge as to be exempted from all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Regiae dignitatis Coronae suae ratione by reason of His Crown and Kingly Dignity The Circuit of our Brittish Ocean the Promontories with the adjacent Isles or parts encompassing our Britain from the North of England by the East and South to the West vindicated by our great and eminently Learned Selden being called the Kings Chambers do justly claim and are not to be denied Dimissionem velorum a striking or louring of Sail by the Ships of other Nations in their passage by any of our Admirals or Ships of War heretofore submitted unto and acknowledged by our late causelesly contending Neighbours the Dutch and French and was not only done by those Nations and all other strangers Ships in their passage by and through our Seas but by them and our own Ships in their sailing upon the River of Thames by the Kings Palace or House at Greenwich though he be not present by striking their Topsail and Discharge of a Cannon or Gun seldom also omitted in other Countries by Ships that pass by any Royal-forts or Castles of Kings in Amity with them as at Croninbergh and Elsenor in or near the Baltick Sea And no small Civility or Respect was even in a Forreign Countrey or Kingdom believed to be belonging and appropriate to the Residence in and Palace of a King of England and was not denyed to our King Edward the first in the 14 th year of His Raign when he was as Fleta tells us at Paris in France in alieno territorio in the King of France his Dominions where one Ingelram de Nogent being taken in the King of England's House or where he was lodged at Paris with some Plate or Silver-dishes which he had stollen about him Rege Franciae tunc presente the King of France being then in the House the Court of the Castellan of the King of France claiming the Cognizance or Trial of that Thief after a great debate thereof had before the King of France and his Council it was Resolved Quod Rex Angliae illa Regia Praerogativa hospitii sui privilegio uteretur gauderet that the King of England should enjoy his Kingly Prerogative and the Priviledge of his House and that Thief being accordingly tried before Sir Robert Fitz John Knight Steward of the King of England's House was for that offence afterwards hanged at St. German lez Prees The Bedel of the University of Cambridge was though he asked pardon for it committed to the Gaol for Citing one William de Wivelingham at Westminster Hall door and Henry de Harwood at whose Suit it was prosecuted committed to the Marshal and paid 40 s. Fine Which necessary and due Reverence to the Kings Courts or Palaces being never denied unless it were by Wat Tyler or Jack Cade and the pretended Holy-rout of the Oliver Piggs bred that laudable custome of the best Subjects of England and all other mens going or standing uncovered in the Kings Chamber of presence even in those houses where he is not Resident Privy-chamber Bed-chamber and Galleries the being uncovered or bare-headed when the Scepter and Globe Imperial have been amongst the Kings Jewels and Plate kept in the Tower of London being accompted one of the Kings Palaces shewed unto any which have desired to see them which the Prince of Denmark as also the Embassador of the King of Sweden have not lately denied and allows not the Ladies Wives or Daughters of Subjects the Daughters of the King and the Wife of the Prince or Heir apparent only excepted to have their trains carried up in the aforesaid separate rooms of State nor a Lord of a Mannor to Arrest or Sieze his Villaine in the Kings presence forbids the Coaches of any but the Kings or the Queens or Heir apparents Wife or their Children or of Embassadors introduced in the Kings Coach from Kings or a Republique such as Venice who in regard
of the Kingdoms of Cyprus and Candie now under their Subjection are said to have Testé Couronné to come into the Court-yards with their Coaches which the little Republique of Genoa in Italy hath notwithstanding their contest for it been lately refused both in France and Spain in the latter whereof a Monarchy and Kingdom much inferior to England it is a great Honour amongst the Domesticks and Servants of that Court to be a Gentleman de la Boca for that such may attend the King at Dinner or Supper and have at other times a priviledge to come into the Rooms of the Palace as far as a certain Hall beyond which no man is to pass although there should be no Guards or Ushers to hinder it And no longer ago then in the month of December 1666 the Lady or wife of the Spanish Embassador in the Court of the Emperor of Germany at Vienna complaining of the Emperors High Chamberlain that she was denied by the guards to enter into the Anti-chamber of the Empress in her Chair or Sedan she was answered by him and informed also by a message from the Emperor that it was the custom of that Court not to permit the Empress her self that Liberty which very necessary regard and respects always had to the Courts or Houses of Soveraign Kings or Princes might besides their safeties which have not seldom been endangered by Brawls and Tumults swelled up into a multitude be the reason that in imitation or reviving of those old Laws of King Alfred and Canutus the Act of Parliament In the 33 th year of the Raign of King Henry the eight did ordain the loss of the Right hand of any striking or making blood-shed within any of the Kings Houses or Palaces or the virge thereof Noblemen or others striking only their Servants with a small stick or Wand for Correction or with any Tipstaff at a Triumph or in doing Service by the Kings Commandment or of any of his Graces Privy Council or head Officers excepted and that any such offences or Murders Manslaughters or malicious strikings should be tryed by a Jury of twelve 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 Steward of the Marshalsea for the time being And so tender have our Kings and Princes been of the Honour of their Princely Palaces and Seats and habitations of Majesty as they would not permit their Mercy to have any thing to do with their Justice or to intercede for any mitigation of their just indignation against such as would but in the least let loose their passions or Indiscretion to violate it witness the case communicated unto me by my worthy friend Sir William Sanderson one of the Gentlemen of His Majesties Privy Chamber in Ordinary of Mr. Mallet in the Raign of Queen Mary who being a Gentleman Usher Quarter Waiter of the Presence-Chamber and having rebuked one Mr. Pierce a Messenger of the Chamber for some Negligence in the Queens Service and being rudely answered to avoid the punishment for striking him if he should draw or inforce blood did spit in his face upon knowledge whereof the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold without any complaint of Mr. Pierce committed Mr. Mallet to the Marshal and after some time punished him in this manner the Lord Chamberlain standing under the Cloth of State uncovered in the presence Chamber with the Officers of the Houshold and others about him Mr. Mallet kneeled down at the lowest step and his offence in Order to his sentence being read unto him by a Gentleman Vsher of the Presence with this Praeamble viz. For excercising that Jewish Inhumane Act of Spitting upon Master Pierce your fellow Servant in Court in the sight and presence of the Cloth of Estate against the Dignity of our Soveraign Lady the Queens Grace the Honour of the Court and the Authority and Power of the Lord Chamberlain To which Mr. Mallet being still upon his knees answered with an Humiliation sorrow and Submission and craved Pardon of the Queens Grace for his fault Whereupon the Lord Chamberlain lightly Rapping Mr. Mallet upon the Pate with his white Staff who craved pardon for offending the Authority and Power of the Court Represented by the Lord Chamberlain Mr. Pierce was appointed to wave a Cudgel over Mr. Mallets head in sign of satisfaction for the wrong received of him And that being done Mr. Mallet was fined in a summe of money to the Queen and after a day or two released After all which the Chaplains and Clergy complaining that the holy Church was scandalized for that Jewish Action Mr. Mallet was ordered to do Penance in the Chappel Royal in a White-sheet holding a Wax Taper burning during the Office of Divine Service and after those punishments Executed upon him permitted to complain against Mr. Pierce for neglecting the Queens Service and Mr. Pierce was for answering Mr. Mallet rudely turned out of his Waiting or place and came not in again until Mr. Mallet was pleased to make it his Sollicitation and Request And so great a Respect was always given to the Kings Palace or Court as it was holden to be a punishment and note of Infamy to be Prohibited it and was in the 18 th or 21 th year of the Raign of King James a part of the Sentence given in Parliament against Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer of England for Briberies and Extortions that he should never come within the Verge of the Kings Court. And that blessed Martyr King Charles was in the midst of His over-great Lenity or Meekness so careful to preserve the Honours and due Respects to His Palace and Court as when Doctor Craig one of His Physicians had in the Kings Chamber given Mr. Kirk one of the Grooms of His Bed-chamber some offensive words and Mr. Kirk meeting him the same day in some of the Court-lodgings had struck him with a blow of his Fist and Doctor Craig complaining of it unto the King and the King referring it unto the Lord Chamberlain of His Houshold who after Examination of the Fact Remitted the Punishment of the Offence to the King He did in much Indignation Banish Mr. Kirk from the Court into which he was more then a year before he could by the Intercession of the Duke of Buckingham then the Great and Principal Favourite be re-admitted And that Pious and Excellent Prince was so apprehensive of any disrespects to His House and Palace as meeting one day or night the Earl of Denbigh then Lord Fielding in his Masking Suit as he was passing through the Privy Galleries towards the Banquetting House stayed him and turned him back to go a more Common-way And was no less watchful to prevent any thing which might be prejudicial or derogatory to the honour of the Garter whereof he was Soveraign in the Palace or House where his Honour dwelt As when at another time finding
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
have been permitted or are to Ride or come into the Castle Gate with his Hat on or covered Those vast Empires of the Ottoman or Turk Persians Mogor and King or Emperour of Japan are not without thosâ— or the like Reverences not only by their profound silences and observations more then ordinary in their Apartments and Retirements but by other Demonstrations of Honour and acknowledgements of Respect to their Soveraign Princes Houses or Palaces Nor are such or the like Reverences or Respects due to the Houses or Courts of kings unknown or disused even amongst the more Heathen and Barbarians who although they are too much conversant with Ignorance Rudeness and Incivilities are notwithstanding by the Principles Law and light of Nature guided and directed unto it In the City and Countrey which was the Queen of Sheba's the people do use such Reverence to the Kings Houses or Palaces as although the Gates do stand open no man dares presume to enter or to touch them Before any do come to the Court or Tent of Prete John Emperour or King of Ethiopia or the Abassines they do alight of their Horses and begin to do their accustomed Reverences stooping down with their right hand unto the ground and betwixt the Prete or Kings Tent and the Tent of the Judges no man passeth on Horse-back in Reverence to the King and his Justice but all do alight and go on foot When any do come to the first Hall of the King of the Maldives Palace who is King of thirteen Provinces and One thousand Isles where His guard are No Lord or Plebeian man woman or child dare go further except the Domestical Officers of the King and Queens and their Slaves and Servitors At the King of Achens Court in the East Indies before any man can come into the Kings Presence he must put of his Hose and Shooes hold the Palms of his hands together lift them above his head and bow with his body Amongst the rude and fierce Tartars he that hath been present with one that died was not to come into the house of the Mangu Chan within a year after The Barons and people who do come unto his Court do within half a Mile where the great Chan Resides make and continue a great silence a sign or token in the Eastern Countries of great Reverence every Baron carrying a little fair vessel to Spit in and after Covers it none daring to spit in the Hall into which before they do enter they put off their Buskins and put on Furre Buskins of white Leather giving the other to their Servants In the City of Nanquim is a Table of Gold wherein is written the Kings name in Memory of his Residence there which stands in the Palace Covered and being to be seen upon some of their Festival days covered all the Nobility of the City do go to do it Reverence In China and at Pequin they which are to pass by the Kings Palaces do descend and alight from their Horses and go on foot until they be passed Yea although the King doth not there reside and they do at other times make their Reverences unto the Kings Empty Throne And so much by the light of nature and the dusky and obscure glimmerings of it were the Palaces and Residences of their Kings and Princes Reverenced by the Mexicans a Populous Nation in the West Indies as all that were to come or appear before Montezuma their King or Emperour were except some Princes his kinsmen to come bare-foot Such therefore and so great Honours being so deservedly due to the Houses and Habitations of Kings and Princes the Affairs or business of the Soveraign Acted either within or without it are not certainly like Esau to be deprived of it's Blessing or what is appropriate or belonging to it but it ought as a very great truth to be subscribed unto by every one that will not abjure his own Reason the Laws and Reasonable Customes of England Prudence and Practice of all other Nations of Christendom and where ever the Light of Reason and Divine Wisdom have imparted their Glories that the business and affairs of the Kings-Servants in Ordinary are to be preferred and Take Place of the Affairs of any Subject or Private Person SECT II. That the Business and Affairâ— of the King about which any of His Servants or Subjects are Imployed are more considerable and to be Regarded then the Business and Affairs of any of His People WHen the General and Universal consisting of all the parts of a Body Politick and the Safety Care and Concernment of the whole must needs surmount any one or two or any Particulars or some Private mens necessities or occasions The brawls and controversies betwixt the Herdsmen of Lot and the Righteous Abraham for Pasture for their Flocks and Cattel were understood in that Particular to be no less then their Masters own Concernments And the Servants of every Master and consequently their business are by God himself and his never Erring Wisdom justly reckoned in the Tenth Commandment or Decalogue as a part of the Masters goods and Estate The Civil Law allows us to conclude that Servi rerum appellatione comprehenduntur Servants are accounted to be a part of the Masters Estate familiae significatione Servi includuntur and in a family Servants are included Familia continentur liberi homines bona fide servientes in a family are contained and intended Freemen aswel as Villains or Bond-men which serve therein Et familia unum quoddam Corpus constituit inde patimur Injuriam etiam per liberos uxorem servos etiam mercenarios nostros for a Family makes and constitutes a certain body and thereupon the Master of it may be said to be wronged in his Wife Children and Servants and sometimes in those which are hirelings And it was neither forbidden or disallowed by the Civil Law in Ancient times before better and more convenient Securities by Pactions and Obligations were found out Servos Ancillas tanquam bona Catalla oppignorare to Pawn or Deliver in Pledge their men Servants or maid Servants Our Saxon Laws intended no less when they did Ordain that every Lord or Master should be obliged to bring his Servant to Justice Our liber Censualis or Doomesday Book made about the 16 th year of the Raign of William the Conquerour as an Inquisition or extent of every mans Estate in the Kingdom both Real and Personal doth therein Reckon Servos Ancillas villanos as well Men-servants and Maid-servants as Villains or Bond-men And our Laws do allow an Action in the Masters name for the beating or wounding of a Servant per quod servitium servientis sui amisit whereby he lost the use or service of his Servant By the Laws of the Old Almains uniusquisque pacem habere debet ad ducem veniendo de illo revertendo Et nullus praesumat hominem de
Henry the Eight cap. 13. It was upon Complaint made in Parliament that it was usual in the County Palatine of Chester that upon the suggestion of any Person that was Indebted to any other Person or Persons coming to the Exchequer within the said County Palatine to pay the Kings Rents and Monies and there taking a Corporal Oath that he or they shall pay his or their Creditors at such time as he or they should be able thereunto the Officers of the said Exchequer have used without Warrant to grant out of the said Exchequer a Writ in Nature of a Protection whereby the Creditors were greatly delaid and in manner defrauded to their great Impoverishment It was Enacted that the said Writ of Course without the Warrant of the King His Heirs or Successors containing any such Protection be no more granted any Vsage or Priviledge to the Contrary notwithstanding which gives an Allowance to any that in such a Case shall be granted by the King Warrant By the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws intended to be made by King Edward the sixth by His Commission directed unto thirty two Commissioners as well Lay-men and Doctors of the Civil Law as Bishops and Divines Issued by Direction of an Act of Parliament made in the third year of His Raign Divine Offices may be celebrated in familiis Nobilium quibusque non licet occupatione publica distractis in Communibus Ecclesis versari in the Houses or Families of the Nobility who by Reason of the Kings and Publick Affairs could not so conveniently come unto their Parish Churches And it was not wont to be denied either to be Law or Reason in England that such as Rid post upon the Kings business might if his Horse were tired or for the greater speed in the Kings Affairs Exchange or take any mans Horse whom he met upon the way And therefore when the Houses of Kings and Princes as to their bare Walls and Rooms abstractly considered are so greatly to be honoured respected and distinguished in their Rights and Priviledges from those of the Nobility and Common People and every thing done within that Precinct or Virge being in the Placita Aulae Records or Rolls of the Marshal of the King in the Raigns of King Edward the first and King Edward the third In Trespass and other Actions depending betwixt the Kings Servants or such as might sue there alleaged to be in Presentia Regis in the Kings Presence And the affairs or business of the King whether domestick or Publick being of so great a Concernment to the People and so much to be preferred before any others or that of the Private the Servants certainly who do attend their Soveraign therein may challenge some more then ordinary Priveledges and Respects then others of His Subjects which are not His Servants in Ordinary SECT III. That the Kings Servants in Ordinary are not to be denied a more then Ordinary Priviledge or Respect nor are to be compelled to appear by Arrest or otherwise in any Courts of Justice out of the Kings House without Leave or License of the Lord Chamberlain or other the Officers of the Kings Houshold to whom it appertaineth first had and obtained WHich Prudent Antiquity and more respectfull Ages could never tell how to deny for if we will look into the Records of time which by shewing us the Errors and Successes of former ages and experiments and teaching us how to Judge of the New by the Old are and will be found to be the best Instructors if we believe as we ought the Divine Inspiration and Counsel of the Prophet Jeremy and do but observe the old ways and paths of a better world there will be enough found to justifie it For the book of God will evidence the great Honour and preferments given in the morning of the world unto Joseph that great Pattern of Fidelity and preferment for it by Pharaoh King of Egypt when he set him over his house made him Steward thereof took his Ring off his hand and put upon his Arrayed him in vestures of fine Linnen put a Gold Chaâ—â— about his neck made him to Ride in the second Chariot with a cry before him Bow the Knee And by the Custom of the Nation or Children of Israel from whom the Egyptians are believed to have borrowed some of theirs where the Beams of the Divine Wisdom enlightened their Laws and Customs the Servants of the King or Prince were carefully chosen and merited a more then Ordinary regard which the well meaning Vriah well understood and had no mean opinion of when he ranked David's Servants amongst the no small concernments of that Nation in refusing to go down unto his own house and refresh himself because the Ark of God and Israel and Judah did abide in Tents his Lord Joab the Kings Lieutenant General and the Servants of the King were encamped in open field And we find David so careful of the honor of his Servants or Embassadors as he made the misusage of them by the King and Children of Ammon to be a cause of his War against them and their destruction and was so unwilling till necessity enforced it that his own Subjects should know of the scorns and reproach cast upon them by cutting their Vests or Garments so short as their naked Buttocks might be seen and the shaving off only the half of their beards as he gave them Order to tarry at Jericho until their Beards were grown out When the King of Syria sent his Letters of recommendation by Naaman the Captain of his host and a great man with his Master to recover him of his Leprosie the King despairing to get it effected and not believing that the Prophet Elisha could do it and fearing least the King of Syria might take the not recovering of his Servant as a disrespect unto himself rent his clothes and said unto his Council or those which were neer unto him Consider I pray you and see how he the King of Syria seeketh a quarrel against me All which with the Excellent Order of David's Servants the Magnificence of Solomon's house which was in building thirteen years by some thousands of workmen with his Servants various Offices and Honourable Imployments therein did not a little contribute to their respect The Princes or heads of the Tribes attending upon the King and the Honourable women upon the Queen mentioned in the 45 th Psalm of David And the Honourable opinion which Solomon the wisest of men had of the Service of a King when he said which is Registered amongst his wise sayings or Proverbs That a man diligent in his business should stand before Princes he shall not stand before mean men The Princes that were in the House of Jehoiakim king of Judah recorded in the 36 th Chapter of of the Prophet Jeremiah and of Zedekiah King of Judah in the 38 th and 41 th Chapter of that Prophet and Benaiah one of
David's mighty men Captain of his Guard and others frequently found to be Attendants or Resident in the Houses or Palaces of Kings thorough the Current of Holy Writ And the Requisites belonging unto those which Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon required in the captive Children whom he intended to breed up in his Court that they should be well favoured skilful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding and such as had ability in them to stand in the Kings Palace may give us to understand how much Kings and Princes were concerned in the Honour or dishonour done unto their Servants and how greatly they were esteemed in former ages and that the Jews were not in an Errour when they and some of their Rabbins did ascribe so much Honour to the Servants and Service of the King or Soveraign as they conceived it to be de honore Regum ut tales ministri qui Aulae semel initiati sunt aliis vilioribus officiis extraneis postea nunquam contaminentur ut nemo utitur servis Ancillis vel ministris ejus nisi alius Rex ejus successor for the Kings Honour that those that had once served him should never be imployed in meaner business or afterwards serve any other then his Successor which may be the reason that their names were so punctually entered into the Register of the Kings Servants as Nehemiah could long after the many Captivities Tosses and Troubles of that Nation by the Divine Judgement and Indignation find in an old Register the Names and Genealogies of Solomon's Servants That mighty King Ahasuerus did but exercise his just Power of giving Honours and Rewards to his Servants when he advanced Haman and set his Seat above all the Princes which were with him and Commanded all His Servants which were in the Gate to Bow and do him Reverence And Haman being afterwards demanded by the King what should be done to the man whom the King delighteth to Honour little thinking that Mordecai whom he hated and was one of the meaner sort of the Kings Servants or any other then himself should be the better for it readily and without any doubt or scruple answered and said for the man whom the King delighteth to Honour Let the Royal Apparel be brought which the King useth to wear and the horse that the King rideth upon and the Crown Royal which is set upon his head And let the Apparel and Horse be delivered to the hand of one of the Kings most Noble Princes that they may Array the man withal whom the King delighteth to Honour and bring him on Horseback through the Street of the City and Proclaim before him Thus shall be done to the man whom the King delighteth to Honour with which the City of Shushan were so well contented as it is said that they rejoyced and were glad The next unto the King was Carshena Shethar Admatha Tarshish Meres Marsena and Memucan the seven Princes of Persia and Media being his seven Counsellors which saw the Kings face and which sate the first of his Kingdom Those that served Kings and Princes were allowed Ornaments and Apparel which the Common and Ordinary sort of People could neither claim nor merit and therefore that greatest Lord of the Earth and Master of Humility made an honourable mention of them when he concluded that they who were molliter vestiti and did wear soft Cloathing were in Kings Houses and the Emperour Theodosius above 300 and 30 years after our Saviour Chirst had left the earth and in an Edict or Proclamation forbidding the use of Silk Raiments to all people of what kind or profession whatsoever excepts himself and his Servants and saith solo Principi ejusque Domui dedicatur that the wearing of such apparel belonged only unto the Prince and those which attends him in his House By the Lex Julia a Law made by Julius Caesar tenetur tanquam reus laesae Majestatis qui Legatos Oratores Comitesque eorum all of them being but the several degrees of the Servants of Majesty pulsaverit which in the Language of those Laws and times and some after-ages signified an Arrest or Compulsion as well as an Assault or beating vel Injuria affecerit he should be guilty of high Treason which should Arrest Beat or wrong any Embassadors or Agents or any of the Soveraigns Attendants or Assistants The divers great and Honorable Offices and Imployments in the Houses of the Western and Eastern Emperors as the Comites sacri Palatii Comites sacrorum largitionum Magister Officiorum cum multis aliis c. Earls of the Sacred Palace Earls or great Officers of the Privy Purse Lord Steward of the Houshold Lord Chamberlain c. May perswade us to more then an opinion of the necessary Respects and Honours due unto them in the Exercise of their Offices and Places about their Soveraign The Guards of the Royal Palace of the Emperours of the West and East Privilegium retinebant had a Priviledge not to be Cited or Convened before any but their own Captains and Commanders The Fabricences or such as furnished the Magazines with armour nulli oneri Civitatis erant obnoxii were freed from publike Offices The Comes Domesticorum Equitum Peditum Earl or Commander of the Horse and Foot-Guard was the Protector Domesticorum Defender of the houshold Servants defunctorum quoque Parentum Domesticorum filii locum subibant etsi ob teneram aetatem armis apti non erant nihilominus Protectorum matriculis inscripti quaternas Annonas id est victum quatuor hominum accipiebant and the Sons of those Domestick Guards were to enjoy their places after their Fathers decease And if they were so young as not to be fit for it were notwithstanding to be entered into the Protectors Books or Registers and to have a proportion of diet or allowance fit for to feed them Claudius Augustus Caesar punished a Tribune of the people then though not so much as formerly a mighty Officer Darling and Favourite of them for beating of one of his Servants The Primicerius or Chief of the Emperours Bed-chamber and all other of the Bed-chamber were Exempted from the Tax of finding Horse or Souldiers or of giving Bail in any Action or Suite before the Magister Officiorum or Principal Officer in the Court so styled not unlike saith the Learned Cujacius to the Prevost de l' Hostell in France Et qui absunt Reipublicae causâ vacationem habent such as are Imployed about the Publike are to be Priviledged To the Praefecto Praetorii Orientis who was as it were the Captain of the Emperours Guard there were saith Pancirollus in His Court or Tribunal one hundred Advocates allowed qui Clarissimi spectabilis titulo gaudebant who enjoyed the Title of Noble and Illustrious and had great Immunities as from Publike works c. The Emperours Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius about the year of Christ
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 contemneâ—da 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 reâ—ipere 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
now and for many ages past allowed and gave the reason of it multis sane respectus esse debet ac multa diligentia ne quis pacem Regis infringat maxime in ejus vicinia for that there ought to be a more than ordinary respect had thereunto and much diligence used that none should break the Kings peace more especially so near his House which must of necessity and by all the rules of Reason and Interpretation of Laws and the meaning of the Law-giver be only understood to referre unto the peace and quiet of his own House and Servants and not unto the Kings care of the publique and universal peace of the Kingdome which was not be streightned or pend up in so narrow a room or compass when as many of his other Laws did at the same time provide for the universal peace and this only aimed at the particular peace and tranquillity of himself and his Family Nor can it appear to have been any intention of that foresighted and considerate Prince that any Sheriffes or Bayliffs should upon all occasions false or malitious or trivial suggestions presume to Arrest and hale from his Palace or Service any of the necessary Attendants upon his Person Majesty and Honour or be the sawcy and irreverent Infringers of their peace which by that Law Intituled De pace Curiae Regis the peace of the Kings Court or Palace he took so great a care to preserve At the Parliament of Clarindon holden by King Henry the Second in Anno Dom. 1164. When that Prince's troublesome Raign was afflicted with the Rebellion of his Sons and Domineering of a Powerful Clergy backt by the Papal power and Insolency it was not thought to be either unreasonable or illegal when Excommunications which the lofty Clergy of those times were not willing to have clipped or limited and the Thunderbolts fear or fury thereof did farre exceed any effect or consequence of an utlary to ordain That Nec aliquis Dominicorum Ministrorum Regis excommunicetur nec terrae alicujus eorum sub Interdicto ponantur nisi prius Dominus Rex si in terra fuerit Conveniatur That none of the Kings Servants or Officers be excommunicated or their Lands interdicted untill the King if he be in the Kingdome be first Attended And the reason of this Law was saith Sir Edward Cook for that the Tenures by grand Serjeanty and Knights service in Capite were for the Honour and defence of the Realm and concerning those that served the King in his Houshold their continual Service and attendance of the King was necessary And Glanvil who was Lord Chief Justice of England and wrote in the Raign of King Henry the second or of King Richard the first of the antient Laws and Customs of England if that Book as some have thought were not written rather in his name then by him howsoever it is ancient and allowed both here and in Scotland to be very Authentick saith that Per servitium Domini Regis rationâ—biliter essoniare potest et cum in Curia probatur hoc essonium et admittitur remanebit loquela sine die donec constiterit â—um ab illo servitio domini Regis rediisse Vnde hi qui assidue sunt in servitio Domini Regis Cui necessitates omnes forenses cedunt to which all other businesses or occasions saith the Learned Spelman in his gloss upon Essoines are to give place ut Servientes ipsius hoc Essonio non gaudebunt Ergo circa eorum personas observabitur solitus cursus Curiae et Juris ordo That a Defendant or Tenant being in the service of the King may rationally be essoyned or for that time be excused and when the Essoyne or excuse is proved in Court and admitted the Action or plea shall be without day and suspended untill it shall happen that he be retorned out of the Kings Service but those that be in the Kings daily Service as his ordinary Servants are not to be allowed such an Essoyne or excuse therefore as to their persons the accustomed course of the Court and order of Law is to be observed but doth not declare what that solitus Curfus Curiae et juris ordo that accustomed course and order of Law in case of the Kings Servants in ordinary then was Or whether their priviledge was not so great and notorious as not to need any Essoine Yet as the Law then was saith that where sometimes both the Plaintiffe and the Defendant did not appear but made default tunc in Domini Regis voluntate vel ejus Justitiariorum erit si voluerint versus utrumque contemptum Curiae vel falsum clamorem prosequi then it shall be in the good pleasure of the King or his Judges if they will prosecute either against the Defendant for his Contempt or against the Plantiffe for his not Prosecution By which again the King was at his liberty to protect or priviledge his Servant in ordinary if the Law had not allowed them any such priviledge as well as to grant his Writ directed to the Judges ad warrantizandum to allow or receive an Essoine for one that was in servitio Regis in his Service recited by Glanvil with an Ideo vobis mando quod pro absentia sua illius diei non ponatis in defaltam nec in aliquo sit perdens therefore I command our Kings not then in their mandates writs or Patents speaking in the plural number as we and us c. You that you enter not a default against the Defendant or Tenant for his absence or not appearing at the day appointed and that he be not damnified thereby And in that Kings Raign and the beginning of the Raign of King Richard the first whilst Chief Justice Glanvil attending his Court and Justice his Warrs in the Holy Land died at Acon and in all those foregoing times and ages it was not probable that any Inroads should be made upon that antient just and rational priviledge of the Kings Domestiques or other Servants in ordinary for that some of the Stewards and great Officers of the Kings most honourable Houshold who had under their several Kings the protection as well as Government of the Servants in ordinary of the Royal Family as Prince Henry the eldest Son of King Henry the second and William Longchampe in the first year of the Raign of King Richard the first Lord Chancellour of England were whilst they held their several other places in the Kings Courts successively Lord Chief Justices of England and attended in the Kings Court. And it appeareth by Glanvil that Actions or Summons or Attachments of Debt and other process were then not infrequently directed to the Sheriffe of the County where the Defendant dwelt made retornable coram me i.e. Domino Rege vel Justitiis meis i.e. Justitiis suis before the King or his Justices in the abstract apud Westmonasterium at Westminster i.e. The Kings House or
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
his Servants when he came to the House of the said Bogo in London and serued him with a Citation in the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury enforced him to eat the Seal and Citation and the said Bogo de Clare pleading that he ought not to answer because it was not alledged that he was the doer thereof nor that his Servants did it by his Command nor were they named it was in that Record and pleading adjudged that although the Fact was committed by the Servants of the said Bogo yet quia Dominus Rex pred Transgressionem sic enormiter factam ut dicitur tum propter contemptum Sanctae ecclesie tum propter contemptum ipsi domino Regi in presentia sua videlicet infra virgam et in Parliamento suo factum propter malum exemplum temporibus futuris tum propter audaciam delinquendi sic de cetero aliis reprimendam permittere non vult impunitam in regard that the King would not suffer so foul an offence not only in contempt of the Church and of the King in his presence that is to say within the virge and in time of Parliament but for the boldness of the offence and the evil example in time to come to pass unpunished the said Bogo de Clare should answer the Fact at the Kings suit for that the offence was committed infra portam suam et per manupastos et familiares suos within the house of the said Bogo and by his Houshold Servants some of whom being named the said Bogo was commanded to bring them before the King and his Councel to abide by what should be ordered and decreed against them By the Statute or Act of Parlimaent made in the 28th year of that Kings Raign the King and Parliament may be understood not to intend that the Kings Purveyors or Servants of that nature should be tryed or punished for divers offences therein mentioned before other Tribunals than that of the great Officers of his Houshold and therefore ordained that for those Offences they should only be tryed and punished by the Steward and Treasurer of the Kings Houshold nor when by an Act of Parliament made in the same year and Parliament of what matters the Steward and Marshall of the Kings Houshold should hold Plea their Jurisdictions were confined to Trespasses only done within the Kings House and of other Trespasses done within the Virge and of Contracts and Covenants made by one of the House with another of the same House and in the same House and none other where And whereas before that time the Coroners of the Counties were not authorized to inquire of Felonies done within the Virge but the Coroners of the Kings House which never continueth in one place whereby the Felonies could not be put in exigent nor Tryal had in due manner It was ordained that in case of the death of men it should be commanded to the Coroner of the County that he with the Coroners of the Kings House should do as belongeth to his Office and enroll it and that the things which cannot be determined before the Steward of the Kings House where the Felons cannot be Attached or for other like cause should be remitted to the Common Law the King and Parliament can be rightly supposed thereby to intend that the Kings Domestiques or Houshold Servants should for Controversies amongst themselves of the nature before recited be compelled to attend or be subject to any other Jurisdiction when a Coroner of the Kings House was long before appointed to prevent it and it appeareth by that Act of Parliament it self that the matters therein mentioned were not to be remitted to the Common Law but where they could not be determined before the Steward of the Kings House The care and provision of which Act of Parliament to keep the cognisance of the Causes and Actions therein mentioned within the Jurisdiction of the Steward and Treasurer of the Kings House did neither abrogate any of the former Rights and Liberties of the King or his Servants nor by any reasonable construction or interpretation can be understood either to abolish and take them away or to intend to give a liberty to Arrest without licence any of the Kiags Servants in ordinary And an Act of Parliament being made in the same year that Common Pleas or Actions should not be holden in the Exchequer which was then kept in his Palace did by a Writ under the great seal of England directed unto the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer reciting that secundùm legem et consuetudines Regni according to the Law and customes of the Kingdom Common Pleas ought not there to be pleaded doth specially except nisi placita illa nos vel aliquem ministrorum nostrorum scaccarii specialiter tangant such Actions as did not especially concern him or any of his Ministers or Servants belonging unto his Exchequer and commanded an Action of debt for five pounds brought against one of thc Exchequer to be superseded and no further prosecuted and that the said Treasurer and Barons should on the Kings behalf declare to the Plaintiffe quod breve nostrum de debito sibi impetret si sibi viderit expedire that he should if he thought it expedient sue forth the Kings writ for the debt aforesaid which can import no less then a license preceding the obtaining of it and untill such Actions were to the large and very great benefit of the Subjects in a cheap and ordinary course to be obtained which in the morning and infancy of our common and municipal Laws were wont to be petitioned for and be not a little costly dilatory and troublesome as they which have made use of a friend to the King or a Master of Requests or Secretary of State may easily be perswaded to believe amounted to a greater trouble delay and expense of the Plaintiffs than now they are put unto to get leave of the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings House to Arrest any of the Kings Servants and that prudent Prince did certainly by that Act of Parliament touching the Exchequer not holding Common Pleas as little intend as did his Father King Henry the third by that Act that Common Pleas should not follow his Court that his Servants in ordinary should without leave or licence first obteyned be constreyned to neglect their Service and attendance and appear before other Tribunals For there is an antient Writ saith Sir Edward Coke to be found in the Register of Writs called de non residentia Clerici Regis of the non-residence of the Kings Clerk or Chaplain or attending in some Office in the Chancery directed to the Bishop of the Diocess in these words Cum Clerici nostri ad faciend in beneficiis suis residentiam personalem which was for the cure of Souls being the highest concernment and greater then that of appearing to an Action of debt or other Action dum in nostris immorantur obsequii◠compelli aut alià s
extensive power of the chief Justice of England then so stiled to the placita only coram Domino Rege tenenda assignata as the Letters Patents or Commissions of the other Judges of the Court of Kings Bench are to this day to such matters as properly concerned Criminal matters the Crown and Dignity thereof and the peace of the Kingdome the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster being the only true and proper Jurisdiction Commissionated to hear the Common-Pleas and Actions for Lands and reall and personal Estate or Civill matters concerning and between Subjects one with another where the contracts or matters complained were not made or done in the Kings House or Palace or Virge thereof by the Kings Servants within the same House to be heard and determined coram Rege ubicunque fuerit in Angliâ before the King wheresoever he should be in England And there was so much care taken by King Edward the second and his Councill of such as were in his Service or imployed in his Affairs as when in the ninth year of his Raign It was enquired or debated in Parliament in what case the Kings Letters should be sent to discharge an Excommunicate person the King decreed as the words of that Law or Act of Parliament do witnesse that hereafter no such Letters should be suffered to go forth but in case where it is found that the Kings Liberty is prejudiced by the Excommunications which in those times were the fulmina or most terrilbe Thunderbolts and Terrors of the English Clergy And it being in the same Parliament complained of that the Barons of the Exchequer claiming by their priviledge that they ought to make answer unto no Complaynant out of the same place did extend their priviledge unto Clerks abiding there called unto orders or unto residence and inhibit ordinaries that by no means or for any cause so long as they be in the Exchequer or in the Kings Service they should not call them to accompt the answer was made by the King it pleaseth our Lord the King that such Clerks as attend in his Service if they offend shall be correct by their Ordinaries which was a protection and priviledge as greatly contenting them as the Kings protection or any priviledge of that nature Like as other but so long as they are occupied about the Exchequer they shall not be bound to keep residence in their Churches With this Addition saith the transcriber of that Act of Parliament of new by the Kings Councill which if understood of the Kings Privy Councill was without doubt ratified and approved by the Parliament that greater Council viz. The King and his Ancestors time out of mind have used that Clerks imployed in his service during such time as they are in service shall not be compelled to keep residence in their Benefices And such things as be thought necessary for the King and the Common-wealth ought not to be prejudicial to the liberty of the Church where we have in and by a Parliament which was alwaies intended as it ought to be a collected wisdome and care of the Nation a clear exposition of those words of Bracton quòd servitium domini Regis nulli debet esse damnosum nec debet esse tenenti and of Fleta nulli debet esse damnosum nec injuriosum the service of the King or any thing done in consequence thereof ought not to be esteemed a wrong or Injury to the Subjects The like priviledge for many Nations doe in their Laws and Constitutions not seldome follow the light of reason in the observation of Neighbours good Examples having not above six years before been allowed by Philip surnamed the fair King of France to the Chaplains and Clerks of the Kings and Queens of France Fleta who as our great and excellently learned Selden saith was an Anonymus or Author without a name but a Lawyer and as is by some supposed to have been at the time of the writing of his book a Prisoner in the Fleet and therefore gave it the name of Fleta by the mention of certain Statutes made in the 13th year of the Raign of King Edward the first as also of the Statutes made at Winchester and Westminster and a record in the 17th year of the Raign of that King is beleeved to have written his book in the latter end of the Raign of King Edward the second or the beginning of the Raign of King Edward the third saith that by a Statute made at Glocester in the sixth year of the Raign of King Edward the first if a Defendant were essoyned of the Kings service and do not bring his warrant at the day given him by his Essoyne he shall recompence the Plaintiffe for his Journy 20 s. or more after the discretion of the Justices and shall be grievously amerced to the King which alloweth that if the Kings warrant be brought that the Defendant is in the Kings Service that Statute not mentioning whether in ordinary or Domestique Service or extraordinary such a Warrant should be received and held good the rule of Law being that exceptio firmat regulam in casibus non exceptis Cases not excepted are alwaies within the protection and meaning of that Law which doth not except them and declares it to be then the Law that a man may be excused in a Court of Justice quod Clameum non apposuerit per servitium Regis quod nulli debet esse damnosum dum tamen docuerit quod venire non potuit ut si occupatus fuit per Custodiam Castri vel alio modo in servitio suo detentus et impeditus that he did not enter his Claim to land within a year and a day by reason of the Kings service which ought not to be prejudicial to any body so as he doe make it appear that he could not come as if he were imployed in the Custody of a Castle or any other way hindered by the Kings Service In the Chapter or discourse de Exceptionibus coram senescallo Marescallo Regis of the Exceptions of a Defendant to be used or taken in an Action brought or commenced before the Steward or Marshall of the King hath these words Item dicere poterit quod non est obligatus ad districtionem senescalli likewise he may say that he is not obliged or bound to obey the process or command of the Steward in the Bond taken for the payment of the money by a Clause inserted which was then not unusual as it appears by his next precedent Chapter that the Debtor should be obliged upon non-payment to appear or have the Action or matter determined before the Kings Steward or Marshall and etsi non obligetur ad districtionem senescalli hoc sibi prodesse non debet though he be not obliged specially in the Bond or obligation to the process or power of the Steward that will not availe the Defendant eò quod est de hospitio Regis et in
servitio suo continuo et quo casu respondebit vel indefensus remanebit et pro convicto habebitur quia per servitium Regis essoniari poterit alibi ubique in infinitum for that he is of the Kings Houshold and continually in his service and in that case must answer or not defending himself will be convicted when as he might otherwise in any other Court or Place have Essoined or excused himself as often as he pleased et servitium Regis nulli debet esse damnosum nec injuriosum being the very words of Bracton beforementioned and the Kings Service ought not to be a wrong or damage unto any And is notwithstanding of opinion that a defendant may be by his Essoin excused ex causâ necessariâ et utili aut causâ reipublicae for a necessary cause or occasion and where the good of the Commonwealth is concerned as surely it must be understood not to be in the safety well being and daily attendance upon the Person of the King as much or very neer the instance or case by him there put Si eat cum Rege in exercitu if he go in the Army with the King as all King Davids Servants did when he marched against his rebellious Son Absolom and as most or very many of the Servants of Kings and Princes do use to be ad patriae defensionem cùm ad hoc teneatur vel per praeceptum Regis when he goeth with the King to War for the defence of his Countrey being obleiged thereunto by the Tenure of his Lands or the Kings Commandement And having said that Pleas of Debt do belong unto the Court of Common Pleas concludes Sunt tamen causae speciales quae alibi terminantur ex permissione Principis per querelam coram senescallo Aulae ut in Scaccario cum causa fuerit Regi necessaria videlicet ne Ministri sui de Scaccario ab obsequio suo continuo quicquam impediantur There are notwithstanding some Causes which by the leave or good pleasure of the Prince are by Plaint to be determined before the Steward of the Houshold as also in the Exchequer when it shall concern the King that his Officers or Servants be not in their Business hindred So as then and for some time after it was not likely that any Inroads should be made upon that just and rational Priviledge of the Kings Servants For howsoever that even in those more frugal and thrifty days some of the Kings Menial and Houshold Servants might not then be so beforehand as it is now termed or so far from being indebted but that some Moneys or Debts might be demanded of them or there might be some occasion of Complaints or Actions to be brought against them Yet there appears not any probability or foundation for it that the Liberties and Priviledges of the Kings Servants were for many years after the twenty eighth year of the Reign of King Edward the First which limited all Actions before the Steward and Marshal of the Kings House to such Contracts and Actions only as were or should be made betwixt one of the Kings Servants with any other of his Servants disturbed or unsecured or that the Kings Servants were for many years after molested or troubled with the severe and disgraceful way of Imprisonments now used when the Chancellors and the Justices of the Kings Bench were by an Act of Parliament in the same year enjoyned to attend the King and his Court and to be there à latere tanquam famulantes always neer him and as Domestiques saith the Learned Sir Henry Spelman so that as the words of that Statute are the King might have at all times neer unto him some that be learned in the Laws which be able duely to order all such matters as shall come unto the Court at all times when need shall require Which the Chancellor and in all lâ—kelihood the Chief Justice did not neglect for saith Sir Henry Spelman Such Causes as nulli constitutorum Tribunalium rite competerent ad Palatium seu oraculum Regni were not limited to the determination or judgment of other Tribunals came to the Kings Palace as to the Oracle of the Kingdom and yet then the King was not without his more than one Attorneys or Procurators who were men learned in the Law And King Edward the third was so unwilling that his Servants should be drawn before other Tribunals as by a Statute made in the fifth year of his Reign where it was ordained That in Inquests to be taken in the Kings House before the Steward and Marshal that they should be taken by men of the County thereabouts to avoid it may be partiality and not by men of the Kings House there is an Exception of Contracts Covenants and Trespasses made by men of the Kings House of the one part and the other and that in the same House And the Chancellors of England were in former times so or for the most part Resident in the Kings Court and accounted as a part of his Family as until the making of the Act of Parliament in the 36 year of the Reign of King Edward the Third which did restrain the Pourveyance to the Kings and Queens Houses only and did forbid it to be made for other Lords and Ladies of the Realm the King did use to send his Writs to the Sheriffs of the Counties where they had occasion to make any Pourveyance for the Chancellor his Officers and Clerks some whereof as their Clerici de primâ formâ now called the Masters of Cbancery were ad Robas had and yet have an yearly allowance for their Robes or Liveries commanding them to be assistant to their Pourveyors the Chancery Clerks being in the 18th year of that Kings Reign so accompted to be a part of his Servants and Family as a Complaint or Petition being exhibited in Parliament by all the Clerks of the Chancery That whereas the Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England ought to have cognisance of all Pleas and Trespasses done unto or by any of the Clerks of the Chancery Thomas de Kislingbury Draper of London had forged the best word they would then bestow upon a Writ or Action not commenced as it ought to be by Original Writ issuing out of the Chancery a Bill of Trespass against Gilbert de Chishull one of the Clerks of the Chancery whereby to take away from the King and his Chancellor the Cognisance of the said Action which belonged unto them contre Common Ley de la Terre against the Common Law of the Land did by a Serjeant of the Mace in London arrest and imprison him in the House of John de Aylesham one of the Sheriffs of London and although the King sent a Supersedeas commanding the Plaintiff to surcease his prosecution there and that he prosecute the said Gilbert de Chyshull in Chancery if he have any cause of Action against him the Sheriffs of London
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 Supplicatioâ—um 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 Seâ—kford 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
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 o◠other great Officer of the Kings houshold cannot be rationally adjudged
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
be Attached Et hinc est quòd vulgaritèr dicitur quòd servientes Regis sunt Pares comitibus and from hence it is saith Fleta that it is Commonly said that the Kings Servants are in that Respect Peers of the Earls and are upon Actions or Complaints of Debt or other personal Actions in the awarding of process in the Court appropriate to the Kings House or Palace to enjoy the like Summons or respectful Usage But if there had been no such Custom or Priviledge in the former ages there is now and hath been for some years last past a greater necessity and reason for it then ever when any of the Kings Servants being made a Defendant by feigned and fictitious Actions or Writs called Bills of Middlesex or Latitats Issuing out of the Court of Kings Bench in placito transgressionis upon a supposed Action of Trespass as great as the Plaintiffs malice or designed oppression to ruine and lay unjust Actions upon him can invent and a late imaginary supposed custom with an ac etiam or supposition of an Action of One thousand or ten or twenty thousand pounds added in the same Writ or Action to be afterwards viz. when the Plaintiff pleaseth exhibited against him may be cast into Prison and overwhelmed with such Complainants pretended Actions his friends so affrightned as they dare not bail him if they were able his service lost and his livelihood under his Sovereign and gracious Master taken away from him and our Kings of England by such Plaintiffs and their untruly suggested Actions reduced to as manifest dangers by Arresting or taking away their Guards or Attendants from them when he shall go or ride abroad or be recreating himself in hunting or other disports as King James was by the wicked Earl Gowries Trayterous purposes to Murder Him by sending His Servanrs the wrong way and telling them that the King was gone before another way and when such Illegal and unwarrantable Writs may have neither cause or evidence or may be for an inconsiderable or small summe of Money or perhaps none at all due unto them And have been of late such Midwives to wicked Designs and Contrivances as a Married Woman hath been by the confederacy of her Husband and the Arresting and Imprisoning her Servants by such Counterfeit Actions enforced to leavy a fine whereby to pass away the Inheritance of her Lands of a great yearly value which was after Reversed by Act of Parliament and a Gentlewomans house in S. Martins Lane in the fields neer London Robbed by Arresting of the Mistress of the House and those that were in it by such Bills of Middlesex for which the Cheater that contrived it was not long after deservedly hanged And surely such a priviledge claimed by the Kings Servants in Ordinary needs not be so quarrelled at when in the great Case which happened in Anno Dom. 1627 being the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr upon Habeas Corpora's brought by four or five Gentlemen who were Imprisoned per speciale mandatum Domini Regis by the Kings Special Command signified under the hands of eighteen Privy Councellors for not lending money to the Publique necessities when they were very able to do it concerning the Arrest or Imprisonment of any of the Freeborn People of England by the Kings Warrant or Command without a cause Expressed Whereby the Judges upon a Habeas Corpus might enquire and Judge of the cause of such Imprisonment and give any of his Subjects their Libertys upon Bail to Answer the Action where the Law allowed it the many and elaborate Arguments made on those Gentlemens behalf in the Court of Kings Bench by several able Lawyers amongst which was that skilful Diver into our Common Laws Antiquities Records and Presidents the Eminently Learned Mr. Noy who except the Great and Learned Selden brought as Great an Ingeny and Intellect to the study of them and a more solid and Penetrating wit and Judgment then any or many an age hath yet produced could not keep the said Gentlemen from being remanded back to the Prisons from whence they came or hinder the opinion of the Judges of that Court amongst which was the Right Learned Justice Doddridge upon view of the President in the case of Edward Page in the seventh year of King Henry the eighth committed to the Marshalsea by the Lord Steward of the Kings House who being afterwards upon an Habeas Corpus brought before the Justices of the Kings Bench was remanded and the like in the Case of James Desmeisters committed to the Marshalsea of the Kings Houshold per concilium Domini Regis by the Kings Privy Council that those Gentlemen could not be Bailed and that by some Pesidents in many Cases where men have been Committed by the Kings Command when they have been discharged by that Court it hath been upon the Kings pleasure signified by His Attorney General or otherwise that which Sir Robert Heath Knight the Kings Attorney General then alleaged for the King in his Argument in that Case not being denied to be Law or presidented either by the Judges or the Council on the other side that multitudes of Presidents might be shewen wherein men Imprisoned for contempts of Decrees in the Courts of Chancery or Requests Courts of Exchequer and High Commission or by the Corporations or Companies of Trade in their Domineering By-laws or Ordinances were not bailed upon their Habeas Corpora's and that in the Case betwixt the Bakers of London where they Fined and Committed men to Prison for not paying of it and the like not seldom done by the Corporations and Companies of Trades in London and the lesser sort of them as of the Watermâ—n c. Thomas Hennings and Litle Page being Imprisoned in 11 Jacobi Regis when they brought their Habeas Corpora and the cause being shewen to be by reason of an Ordinance or Constitution of the Lord Mayor of London the Prisoners were sent back to abide his Order in which grand Case of the Habeas Corpora that Pious and just King did not as Oliver that Canker of our English Laws and Liberties did in the Case of Mr. Cony the Merchant Imprison or Terrifie the Lawyers which argued for them but in the Expectation and hopes of a better effect then afterwards hapned upon it gave them as much Time and Liberty of Search and Arguments against His Royal Prerogative in that particular as they could desire and those very Justices of the Kings Bench being in the next year after called before a Committee of Lords and Commons in Parliament to declare their opinions concerning those proceedings And asserting their opinions Justice Whitlocke being one of the said Judges denied that there was any Judgment therein given whereby either the Kings Prerogative might be enlarged or the right of the Subject Trenched upon that if they had delivered them presently it must have been because the King did not shew cause wherein they should have
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 Purveyanâ—e 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 Cour◠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
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 〈◊〉 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 Allegiâ—nce 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 vinculâ—m arâ—tius 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 â—i 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
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
cause in the same year Richard Horne of Watton in the County of Oxford to be arrested and taken into custody upon the complaint of Mr. Hiorne Deputy Steward of VVoodstock for not only refusing to furnish horses to carry the Kings Venison to Court he being Constable and required and of duty ought to do it but for reproachful and ill language or as was done not long before or after in his Reign by a Warrant under the hand of the L. Chamberlain for the apprehension of one that had spoiled or killed a Mastiff of the Kings when as our Laws have not yet had any prescript form or writs remedial for any of those or the like accidents at the Kings suit only for it would be no small disparagement to the Majesty of a King and supreme of such an antient Empire not to have power enough to redress complaints of that nature or to be enforced to put Embassadors to be Petitioners to his inferiour and delegated Courts of Justice which no Monarchy Kingdom or Republique in Christendom was ever observed to suffer to be done for that which their Superiors according to the Law of Nations ever had and should have power to grant without them for when our Laws which do not permit the King as a Defendant to be commanded in his own name under his own Seal and by his own writs or as a Plaintiff to supplicate those whom he commissionated to do Justice in his name and by his authority to all the meanest of his Subjects to do a parcel of Justice to himself when he wanted no remedies by his own Messengers or Servants to imprison any that should offend against his dignity and authority and in matters of his Revenue or for contempt of his Royal authority can by seisures or distress office or inquisitions process of his Courts of Exchequer Chancery Kings Bench Common-Pleas and Dutchy of Lancaster c. give himself a remedy is not to prosecute in any Actions at Law as common persons are enforced to do for our Kings should not certainly be denied their so just and legal rights when by their Office and dignity Royal they are the principal Conservators of the Peace within their own Dominions and by their Subordinate authority the Judges of their Courts of Record at Westminster and the Justices of Assize can and do legally punish and command men by word of mouth to be Imprisoned or taken into Custody by their Tipstaves Virgers Marshals or by the Warden of the Fleet or his men attending them when the Lord Steward of the Kings Houshold Earl Marshal and Constables of England are by their Offices Conservators and Justices of the Peace in all places of the Realm and the Steward of the Marshalsea within the virge by that derived authority can do the like and all the Justices of Peace in England were and are authorised by him who hath or should have certainly a greater power than any Justice of Peace who may by Law award a man to prison w ch breaketh the peace in his presence or appoint his servant to serve or execute his Warrant or cause by word of mouth to be arrested or imprisoned the person offending for contempts or an offender being in his presence to find security for the Peace and by the Common Law cause Offenders against the Peace to be punished by corporal punishments not capital as whipping c. when a Sheriff of a County and the Majors and head Officers of Cities and Towns Corporate do the like under and by the power given them by grants of the King and his Progenitors when the Steward of the Sheriffs Turn or a Leet or of a Court of Piepowder may commit any to ward which shall make any affray in the presence of any of them when the Lord Mayor of London whose Chamberlain of that City hath a power appropriate to his Office of Chamberlain to send or commit any Apprentices of London upon complaint of their Masters or otherwise to the Prison of the Compters or to punish and reform such disobedient Servants though the younger Sons of Baronets Knights Esquires of Gentlemen and sometimes the elder Sons of decayed or impoverished Esquires or Gentlemen who should have a greater respect given unto them then those of Trades men Yeomandry or lower Extractions by cutting and clipping their hair if too long and proudly worn or cause them to be put into a place well known in Guildhall London Called Little Ease where to a great Torment of their bodies they cannot with any ease sit lie or stand or by sometimes committing them to Bridewell or some other place there to be scourged and whipt by a Bedel or some persons disguised for no man can tell where to find or discern any reason that the King should not upon extraordinary occasions have so much power and coertion in his high and weighty affairs of government protection of his people and procuring and conserving their peace welfare and happiness as a Stâ—ward of a Court Leet or the Lord thereof in their far less affairs of Jurisdictions by punishing of Bakers and Brewers by that very ignominioâ—s and now much wanted use of the Pillâ—ry and Tumbrel in the later whereof the Offender was to be put in a Cathedra or ducking stool placed over some stinking and muddy pool or pond and several times immerged in it or that by any law or reasonable custom our Kings of England are to have a more limited power in matters of punishment government or a less power than the Masters Wardens of that petty and lower most the late erected Company or Corporation of the Midlers only excepted Company or Corporatioâ— of the Watermen who acting under the Kings authority can fine the Master Watermen for offences committed against by-laws of their own making and imprison them without Bail or Mainprize for not paying of it and cause their Servants for offences against their Masters to be whipt and punished at their Hall by some vizarded and invisible Tormentors or less than the power and authority of a Parish and most commonly illiterate and little to be trusted Constable who may upon any affray or breach of the Peace in his presence or but threatning to break the peace put the party offending in the stocks or keep him at his own house until he find sureties of the peace or less than those necessary military powers and authorities exercised in Armies Garrisons or Guards by inflicting upon offenders that deserve it the punishment of running the Gantlet riding the wooden horse c. or in maritime affairs by beating with a Ropes end ducking under the main yard c. when as the Powers given by God Almighty to his Vicegerent the King and Supreme Magistrate and the subordinate and derivative power concredited by him to his delegated and commissionated inferiour Magistrates are not debarred that universal and well-grounded maxim of Law and Right Reason Quando Lex aliquid
concedit concedere videtur id sine quo res esse non potest when the Law granteth any thing it granteth the means without which the matter or thing could not be which the now Lord Mayor or London or some of the Sheriffs or Aldermen of that City thought to be Warrant sufficient for imprisoning if report be not mistaken a poor Cobler living in or near Fleet street for stumbling upon a piece of a Jest or Drollery and saying he thanked God he had dined as well as the Lord Mayor when his Lordships coming or being invited to dinner with the Reader and Society of the Inner Temple in or about the latter end of the Moneth of March 1668. had upon his claiming a liberty to have the Sword of the City born before him within the Liberties of the Temple caused some Tumult or Ryot begun as the Gentlemen of that Society alleaged by his own party the harmless Coblers curiosity had only perswaded him to leave his small subterranean Tenement shaded with his usual frontelet of a few old shooes to be amongst many other of the Neighbourhood a Spectator of that contention betwixt the Lord Mayor and that Inne of Court concerning its Privileges the one endeavouring to infringe and the other to defend the Temples very antient clearly to be evidenced privileges And many Justices of the Peace would be unwilling that their punishments by committing of men to prison for ill words mis-behaviours or sometimes by a but supposed affront given or used unto some of them for a Tobaccoe-pipe casually thrown out of the window of an Alehouse into a neighbor Justice of the Peace his Garden when unperceived by the Thrower he was walking therein should be adjudged to be without the bounds or limits of their Commissionated Authority nor should they or any other of the Kings Subjects refuse to subscribe to that well-known Axiom conseâ—ted unto by our Laws as well as the Law of Nations that derivativa potestas non potest esse major primitiva that a derivative power or authority cannot be greater than the power and authority which gave it And therfore it should neither be taken to be any over bold assertion vain imagination or inference weakly built conjecture or conclusion without premises that the servants of the Kings of England in ordinary ought not to be bereaved of their aforesaid Privileges and that all the Subjects of England are more then a little obliged to take a care that they should enjoy them when as every Male of England and Wales above the age of 12 years are to take and swear the Oath of Allegiance which was a law so long agoe instituted and ordained saith Sir Edw. Coke before the Conquest as King Arthur is by good Warrant believed to be the Author of it and all the People of England who since his Majesties happy restoration have sworn it and by that great tie and obligation did undertake to bear truth and faith unto him and his Successors of life and member and terrene honour and that they should neither hear or know of any damage intended unto him which they should not defend all which do take degrees of learning faculties in our Universities all Judges Serjeants at Law Justices of Peace Baristers at Law Mayors Sheriffs and Magistrates whatsoever under Sheriffs and their Deputies and all Bayliffs Officers and Clerks entrusted in any Court of Justice do not only take and swear the Oath of Allegiance but the Oath of Supremacy which is to defend the jurisdictions and privileges preheminencies and authorities of the King his Heirs and Successors annexed to their imperial Crown and dignity and by all those very binding and soul as well as body engaging obligations should in no case endeavour to impugne or obstruct which the arresting of his Servants in ordinary or his necessary attendants without leave or license first obtained doth assuredly do his so antient so legal and so long accustomed just Rights Jurisdictions Privileges and authorities inseparably incident and appurtenant to his Royal government it having been in the Reign of King Henry the 8 th one of the Articles against Cardinal Wolsey subscribed by the Lord Chancellor the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk diverse Earls Barons and some of the Kings Privy Councel that where it had been accustomed within the Realm that when Noblemen do swear their Houshold Servants the first part of their Oath hath been that they should be true Leigemen to the King and his Heirs Kings of England the same Lord Cardinal had omitted to do it Nor have those rational legal necessary and well grounded privileges of Kings or Princes Servants decursu Temporis by any change or long course of time been so discontinued antiquated or altered upon any pretence of grievance or inconveniencies whatsoever as not now to be extant and found in our Neighbour Nations and most other of the civilized parts of the world not only where the fear of God or honour of Princes have any thing to do but even amongst those which having not had light enough to know the true God have in their ignorance fancied and made to themselves Deities of their own imaginations When our Neighbours of France who were heretofore better acquainted with their Liberties than since they are or are likely to be did not think it to be a thing unreasonable that the King of France his servants in ordinary should enjoy those or the like immunities and privileges when non nisi venia prius impetrata without leave first obtained ab Architriclino sive Oeconomo hospitii regis from the Master of the Kings houshold as with us the Lord Steward or Lord Chamberlain neminem licet per Francorum leges in jus vocare in Palatio It was not lawful by the Laws of France to sue or arrest any in the Palace or belonging to the Kings houshold Pares Franciae praetoribus Regiis non subjiciantur The Peers of France are not to be tryed by the Kings ordinary Courts of Justice Et non ferebat nobilitas de feudis ab ignobili ullo judicari the Nobility of France will not endure that any thing concerning their Fieffs or Lands should be tryed and adjudged by any which were not of the Nobility In the year 1288. which was about the 24 th year of the Reign of our King Edward the first in the case of John Pompline it was in the Parliament of Paris adjudged that he being the Kings servant in ordinary ought not to pay any Assessment And the like in the year 1311. in the Raign of King Philip the fair of France which was about the 4 th year of the Raign of our King Edward the second in the case of Baldwin and Proger Et Philippi pulchri constitutione ad Architriclinum sive Oeconomum actionalium personalium jurisdictio pertinebat quae a ministris Regiis omniumque criminum cognitionem sibi vendicabat quae in Comitatu
Regis admittebantur and by an Ordinance made by the said King the cognisance of all personal actions commenced by any of the Kings Servants did appertain to the said Master of the houshold who claimed likewise the Trial of all Criminal matters committed in the Kings House Philip King of France called the Long in the year 1317. which was about the 10 th year of the Raign of our King Edward the second did command that Taxes or Assessments taken from three of his servants should be restored unto them which was consented unto by his Parliament and by a decree in Parliament the next year after it was ordained that Omnes Domestici Regis administri pronunciantur immunes ab omni commeatuum vectigalibus quos ad necessitatem usum suum apportari curant all the Kings houshold servants should not pay any Taxes for the provisions which they bought or provided for their necessary uses or occasions In a Decree of that Parliament made in the Raign of their King Charles the 5 th called Charls the wise in the cause of Silvester Cornelius the Kings Almoner in the year 1367. which was about the 41 th year of the Raign of our King Edward the 3. it was adjudged that Domestici officiarii immunitate gauderent a vectigalibus the Kings houshold servants should be freed from Taxes By an Edict made by K. Charles the 6. of France ratified by Parliament in the year 1408. which was about the 5. year of the Raign of our K. Henry the 5 th It was ordained Vt qui ministri Regis viginti Annos aut amplius ministraverint vacantes a ministerio stipendia tamen habeant that those which had served the King 20 years or more should though they left their service have their wages continued Immunitas ab indictionibus subsidiariis omnibus attributa domesticis Regum officiis de praediorum suorum fructibus cum approbatione Parliamenti a privilege freedom was granted by the aforesaid King Charls the 6. from all subsidies to be charg'd upon any of the Kings houshold Servants by allowance of Parliament in the year 1411. which was in or about the 8 th year of our King Henry the 5 th By a Letter of Lewis the 11 th who raigned in France in the time of our King Edward the 4 th sent to the Parliament and Registred therein that King required ut primo loco suorum officialium causas judicet nisi contendentium sit ipsius aut Reginae domesticus in quo casu se moveri jubet ut exponat de eo voluntatem suam that in the first place they should hear and determine the causes of their own Officers unless one of the parties should be the King or Queens servant in ordinary and in such a Case commands that he be first moved and his pleasure thereupon declared Francis the first King of France in Anno 1525. which was about the 16 th year of our King Henry the 8 th sent his Declaration to that Parliament wherein he ordained that his Mothers houshold servants should enjoy the like privileges as his Officers and servants did and another Declaration to that Parliament in the year 154â— quod officiales domesticos commensales suos ab omnibus tributis Indictionibus pensitationibus etiamque Canone in quinquaginta peditum millia praestando Immunes erunt that all his Domestick Officers Houshold servants should not be charged with any Taxes or Tributes or with Assessments towards the payment of 50000 foot men and a like Declaration in the year following de simili immunitate officiis Reginae domesticis commensalibus attributa of the like privileges to the Officers and Houshold servants of the Queen seconded by a Declaration of Henry the second King of France Registred in Parliament in the year 1548. which was about the second year of our King Edward the 6 th of the Privileges of the Kings Domestick and Houshold servants and the like to the Domesticks and servants of Elianor the Widow Queen In which Kingdom also notwithstanding an ordinance made at Moulins about the year of our Lord 1566. which was about the 8 th year of the Raign of our Queen Elizabeth the Masters of Requests are not to be arrested or imprisoned for debt until four months expired after legal notice In the year 1626. the King of France sending the Marshal de Bassompierre his extraordinary Embassador into England to reconcile some differences betwixt our late Royal Martyr King Charles the first and his Royal Consort the Queen concerning the discharge and sending away most of her servants of the French Nation attending upon her contrary as was pretended to the Marriage Contract for some insolences and misdemeanors not to be tolerated and that great Embassador bringing in his Retinue Father Sancy a Popish Priest whom our King had no respect for in regard of some ill offices supposed to be done betwixt him and his Royal Consort the Queen was no sooner come to Gravesend but he had an express Order from our King to send back the Father Sancy who was in his ill opinion and could not be endured to which the Embassador returning an Answer that he was one of his Domesticks and humbly intreating his Majesty not to intermeddle therein said that the example alleged of Mr. Walter Mountague who being in the Retinue of our Embassador Sir Dudley Carleton in France was upon the command of the French King in like manner dismissed was not to be any rule or reason in his case and that howsoever our English Ambassador Carleton permitted it he would rather lose his life than suffer such an affront to be done unto him whereupon the Lord Conway principal Secretary of State after his coming to the Court bringing him a message from the King that he would not give him audience although he had promised it unless he would first send Father Sancy back into France the Embassador replyed that it would be in vain that his Majesty should desire any such thing of him parce que absolument il ne le feroit ponit que si il ne vouloit plus donner audience il retourneroit vers son roy for that he was absolutely resolved not to do it and if he might not have his Audience he would return home without it and notwithstanding that he was extremely pressed by some of our Ministers of State who alleaged that the Kings honor reputation was engaged therein continued his Refusal for that the Father Sancy came along with him by order of his King and the Queen Mother whereupon the Embassador having certified his King of France of the proceedings therein did not long after by a Letter under his own hand receive his approbation for what he had done In the Empire of Germany the Domestique servants of the Emperor are not bereaved of the Privileges of servantâ— attending upon the person as well as the publick cares of their Soveraigns when the
but is no more than a Gownless mis-called Alderman and can have no more of truth or reason in it than for a Chambermaid to a Lady dressed up in her Ladies old Clothes to believe her self to be a Lady because some overcomplementing small piece of wit hath mistakenly called her so or for a man of 20 l. per annum Free Land to believe himself to be a Knight and his Wife a Lady because when according to the Statute made in the first year of the Reign of King Edward the Second he was summoned to take the Order of Knighthood upon him he compounded and paid a Fine to escape that dignity which was too big for his quality or estate and as great a madness and ridiculous as that of Don Quixot or our late Countryman Parsons the Taylor fancying himself to be the Romance Knight of the Sun or for a Bum Bayliff or Countrey Catchpole to imagine himself to be a Knight or his Wife a Lady because in imitation or observance of some antient courses or usages in our Laws he was upon a Writ of View in a Writ of Right or Entry Dower or Formedon retorned by the Sheriff to have been present at the View by the title or addition of a Knight and as little consonant to reason and truth as for a Sheriff or Justice of Peace to think himself to be an Esquire because the King by his Commission for that particular time or purpose was pleased to stile him so or if it did conferre such a Title or Dignity yet it ought not to remain either to a Sheriff or Justice of Peace when they are exuti dignitate out of those temporary Offices by the Office of Sheriff being determined or the turning the Justice of Peace out of Commission which our reason as well as the Civil Law will not permit when by the summoning of a Great man of England to assist in the House of Peers in Parliament or to attend therein he is not thereby to be accompted a Baron by Writ or to have Fee therein to him and his Heirs unless he have been thrice summoned and obeyed those Writs And the Civil Law will tell us that Si ratione alicujus officii debeantur aliqua signa seu insignia if any Armes be given the like being to be said of Titles by reason of any place or office they are but durante officio finito illo transeunt ad successores officiarios during the continuance of that Office which being determined it goeth unto those which do succeed in that Office And that and the Law of Nations will give us the reason of a greater respect to be given unto the Kings Servants rather than unto any other mens Servants when the Emperors of the West and East were so carefull that their Domestick Servants and Guards should have a more than ordinary regard wheresoever they came or had any occasion of business though in any part of their large Dominions far or remote from their Imperial Courts as in a Rescript of the Emperors Valentinianus Theodosius and Arcadius order was taken and a command given ut Domestici ac Protectores osculandi cum salutaverint Vicarium Praefecti Praetorii habeant potestatem poena enim Sacrilegii similis erit si his honorificentia non deferatur qui contingere purpuram Imperatoris digni sint aestimati that the Domesticks or Houshold Servants of note of the Emperors and the Guards attending the Court who were thought worthy to be about their persons when they came to salute the Deputy or Lieutenant of the Major Domo Lord Steward of the Emperors Houshold and General or Chief Captain of the Guards or the Governours of some Provinces or part of the Empire in the later Emperors times should be allowed to kiss him which the very learned Salmuthius in his Comment upon Guido Pancirollo interprets to be commonly a kissing of the hand as well as the sometimes receiving of a salute or kiss of the mouth which summi honoris loco tribuitur saith Cuiacius was esteemed to be the greatest honour for they deserved as much as the punishment usually inflicted upon those who committed Sacriledge which gave not due honour or respect unto those which were thought worthy to be near their persons And were so unwilling that any of their Servants which were imployed in any eminent places about their persons or affairs should when they had quitted their Offices or places be reckoned amongst the Vulgar as the Emperors Valentinianus and Theodosius did by their Rescript ordain that qui suae quodammodo adsidere Majestati videntur which had the honour to be near their persons should post depositum officium ab omni Indictionis onere seu Civilium seu Militarium judicum prorsus immunes after they had left their places be altogether free from all Taxes Civil or Military for si quis lateri Principis ipsius permissu adhaereat nobilis efficitur such of the Kings Servants as are attendant and near unto his person are reputed Noble and Honourable and their Virtue conjoyned with Riches and their imployment about the Fountain of Honour may well deserve a preheminence above other mens Servants when as the Service of such as received their honour from the Prince was as the younger Pliny said in his time pronum ad honoris iter a ready way to honour and gentleness or the bearing of Armes saith Sir John Ferne may be obtained by the service of the Soveraign according to the Rule of the Civil Law with which that learned Civil as well as Common Lawyer was not meanly or little acquainted adhaerentes lateri Principis eidem in officio quocunque minimo ministrantes nobilitantur those which are in the Service of the King and near unto his Person or imployed by him in the meanest Service are in some sort so enobled as to claim the bearing of Armes or Badges of Gentility and Ideo Coquum Principis in dignitatem haberi nobilem esse oportet omnes famulantes Principi sunt in dignitate therefore a Kings Cook ought to be so much respected as not to be denyed the like Priviledge and all the Kings Servants have a certain Dignity to them appertaining and some of our English Nobility have granted as an Earl of Stafford did to Mackworth one of his Servants Insignia Nobilium Coats of Armes to their Servants and Followers And the French Burgundians and Millanois as well as many of our antient English Nobility have heretofore permitted their Clients and such as held their Lands of them to take and use some part or resemblance of the Armes of their Lords or Seignors Wherefore the excellently learned Cassanaeus having travelled through the vast Volumes of the Civil and Caesarean Laws and wrote his Book entituled Catalogus gloriae mundi in the beginning of the Reign of our King Henry the 8th did not certainly stray or wander out of the paths of right
reason when he understands the Honour acquired by being the Servant of a Soveraign Prince to be as well the cause of their Priviledges and Immunities which he positively affirms to be ratione dignitatis Officii by reason of the dignity of their Offices and Places as the import and necessary use of their Offices and Places about the Person health and safety of the Prince in which the well-being of the Universality of the people and Body Politick are concentred And that they are called Curiales Courtiers ex quo cum Cura esse debent in respect of the Cares which they take in the service of their Prince mitius agendum Curialibus Aulicis quam aliis parcendum honori verecundiae domus Regiae his qui pro domo parentibus Regiis laborarunt the Servants of the King are to be more favoured than the Servants of other men and a special regard ought to be had unto the honour of the House or Palace of the King and those which do labour and take pains for the good thereof and the Kings Family that amongst the Domesticks or Servants of the King or Soveraign Prince omnis ordo recipit splendorem a Principe every degree or rank hath in some sort the resplendency and reflection of their Soveraigns imparted or communicated unto them Et cum Senatores excusantur a fortiori Curiales Familiares Principum nec ex eo eorum conditio deterior fieri debet cum circa Principem se obsequiales exhibent universis and when Senators or Parliament-men are priviledged by a greater reason ought the Princes Servants to be priviledged neither should their condition be made to be worse than theirs seeing that when they do Officiate about the Prince they do at the same time serve the People and Weal-publick and recounting some of the Priviledges of the Court Officers and Servants doth amongst others agree that Curiales in hoc privilegiantur quod praedia eorum non possunt alienari sine solemnitate that their Lands and real Estates cannot as other mens be aliened in a common and ordinary manner but by special words and expressions of the certainty of the cause and money given for it Et istud est in favore ipsorum Curialium ut Respublica habeat divites Curiales in tantum in hoc privilegiatur res Decurionum seu Curialum quantum res minorum Ecclesiae in hoc pari passu ambulant And that in favour of the Courtiers or Kings Servants to the end that the Commonwealth may be the better served by the Kings Servants being rich and that their Lands and real Estate are in that as much priviledged as the Lands and real Estate of Infants and the Church which was not a little and as to that have equal Priviledges And further assures us that in France the Kings Servants have a Priviledge quod non possunt conveniri coram Judice Ordinario loci ubi habent Domicilium they are not to be cited or prosecuted before the Ordinary Judge or Court where they inhabit which all other persons not priviledged are only to be sed debent conveniri in Curia ibi causae eorum tractari debent maxime pro negotiis Curialibus coram Magistro Officiorum aut magno Praeposito domus Principis but ought to be cited or compelled to appear in the Court and there the cause ought to be tryed especially if it concern any affairs of the Court before the Lord Steward or the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold in aliis vero causis non concernentibus eorum statum Curialem sed negotia privata seu particularia suarum rerum but in other causes not concerning the business of the Court but for any of the Kings Servants private or particular business there was at Paris in France in the Kings Palace a particular Chamber or Court called the Court of Requests wherein by the Kings Letters called Commitimus the causes of any of his Servants were to be decided and determined Which honours and respects due and given unto Kings and Princes Servants in so many Neighbour Nations may be enough to assure us that that which our English Laws and Customes have afforded those that serve our Princes ought not to have such outcries or complaints against them And that Sir Hugh Hamersley Knight Lord Mayor of London in the Reign of King James was not much if at all mistaken when he stood so much upon his priviledge of the Kings special Servant or Lieutenant in the City of London in the time or year of his Mayoralty as he resolved not to give place unto the King of Denmarks Ambassador who intended to come and dine with him but to insist upon the honour and priviledge of his Place in that particular which the Ambassador understanding by Sir John Finet then Master of the Ceremonies who was to attend him thither thought it better to forbear as he did that designed visit For a common and innate civility and respect which should be used amongst Servants and all others could never yet think it consonant to reason that a Butchers Apprentice or the Foreman of a trim Citizens Wives shop should take place of the Servant of any of our Princes of the Blood Nobility or other Persons of Honour much less of our Kings there being degrees and precedencies of Servants amongst all people any thing acquainted with good manners and civility proportioned and laid out according to the ranks or qualities of their Masters and in that also a consideration to be had of the nature of their Imployments taught us by the difference betwixt a Footman or Coachman and a Gentleman wherein our gracious Soveraign did but preserve the Majesty due unto his Soveraignty when if report be true he did in the later end of the year 1666. prohibit the Duke of Newcastles Footmen the wearing of black Velvet Caps which the Kings Footmen usually do whilst they attend his Caroch And if Histories the monuments of Time and former Ages were as they are not in that particular silent a common and frequent and almost every years experience will evidence how much the Honour of Princes are concerned in the respects or not respects of their Servants by the care and circumspection those resemblances of their Masters greatness do take and use to preserve and not diminish the least Iota or tittle of the Honour due unto those that sent them the strict and piercing inspections of Princes into the qualities greater or lesser of those that are sent and all and every the circumstances and ceremonies of their Receptions and Entertainments Punctilioes niceties and formalities insisted upon by Ambassadors complaints of the least omissions or preteritions exact and curious measures in the giving or not giving them respects to the full or height with their strivings for place or precedency even to bloody Combats betwixt the Ambassadors of emulating Princes as betwixt the French and
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 â—undi 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 Bâ—tler 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
Utlawed person could not be restored till he had been by the Court committed to the Prison of the Fleet for his contempts purchased and pleaded his Charter of Pardon from the King under the Great Seal of England and appeared to the Action when the King and his service and attendance was the only cause that he did not or could not attend or appear thereunto or put in Bayl to answer it when there was no danger of his absence or flying away from the Kings Service which is or ought to be not a little advantageous or beneficial unto him And when the Plaintiff at whose instance such a prosecution was made might with as much ease and as little charge and a far less expence of time have petitioned the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold and obtained a license to have taken his course at Law against him And if the Lord Chamberlain had given the Defendant a reasonable time or prefixion for the Plaintiffs satisfaction as his Lordship usually doth it would probably not have exceeded the time of six months which is by our Laws the shortest time wherein a Defendant can be Utlawed which as Bracton saith ought not to be suddenly done but to have five months warning or time given in regard of the severity thereof when a man is Utlawed and is thereby to forfeit bona catalla patriam amicos his Goods Chattels Countrey and profits of his Lands to be as an exile or banish'd man was not to be received or entertained by his Friends could not bring an Action for any thing due unto him untill the Utlary be reversed but was as antient as the Saxon times accounted to be a Friendless and Lawless man And it would be a great piece of incivility to prosecute such a Servant of the Kings in ordinary so busied and imployed about his person and not first of all to Petition for his license when in an ordinary way and with no great charge and a great deal sooner than the Defendants appearance to his Action can be enforced by an Utlary it might have been so easily procured and possibly the Kings great occasions and expence of money for the Publick and their defence and protection wherein the good and safety of that Plaintiff was amongst the rest included might be the cause that he could not pay such Servant in ordinary his wages and that such Servant could not so soon as he otherwise would have satisfied the party prosecuting there being no reason to be assigned by any whose exuberant phancies have not altogether divorced them from it that one that is but imployed upon a seldom and temporary imployment of the Kings and is not his Servant in ordinary nor the business he is imployed in so continually near and relating to his person should during that his temporary imployment and of a far less concernment as to go on a Message for him or in company of some Ambassador be priviledged during his absence in his Person Goods and Estate and a Servant in ordinary continually attending his Sacred Person should be only protected in his Person but not in his Estate or that the priviledges and immunities so antiently due and appropriate to his Servants in ordinary and near his person should be curtailed and have less allowed them than Strangers and such as are only imployed for some small time or occasion Or that the Utlawing of any of his Servants in ordinary should forfeit their so just Rights and Priviledges when as by the Law and reasonable Customs of the Kingdom they are not to be Utlawed or put in Process of Utlary without license or leave first asked and no man should be Utlawed or punished for a default of not appearing or have any Process of arrest or contempt awarded against him where he had a reasonable excuse or impediment or cause of Essoyne as by Inundation of Waters being sick or in the parts beyond the Seas or so great a one as the Service of the King for if Utlaries in such a case unduly obtained should cause a forfeiture of just and legal Customs and Priviledges any that had a mind to do a mischief to a supposed adversary might as well contrary to the Priviledges of Parliament in the time of Parliament find or make a pretence to Utlaw any of the Members of either of the Houses of Parliament and make that to be as it were a forfeiture of their Priviledges and a justification which they can never make out of the infringing of them and the Parliament-men of the House of Commons might be Utlawed persons which the Law forbids and by tacite and many times undiscerned Utlaries might lose and be deprived of their Priviledges And the parties offending or endeavouring such breaches of Priviledge should not take advantage de son tort of their own wrongs or tortious doings which our Common Law maxime doth abhorr and the Civil Law doth as little like or allow when its Rule is that Nemo commodum consequi debet ex suo delicto no man is to take profit by his offence against the Law For in vain should the Kings Servants be by the Constitution of Clarendon in the Reign of King Henry the second freed from Excommunications or the Ministers or Priests be by the Act of Parliament in the 50th year of the Reign of King Edward the third and the first year of the Reign of King Richard the second exempted from being arrested in the Church or Church-yard if an Utlary which being very antiently used in Criminal matters but not in Civil in Bractons time in the Reign of King Henry the 3d. taught the way and manner of it in Civil should be able to forfeit it or take them away for in and before that Kings Reign Bracton saith Videtur nulla esse Vtlagaria si factum pro quo quis Interrogatus est Civile sit non Criminale pro quo quis vitam amittere non deberet vel membra it seemeth there ought to be no Utlary where the Defendant or party is prosecuted for any Civil matter not Criminal wherein he was not to lose either life or members And very unbecoming the Majesty and Honour of a King it would needs be to have any of his Servants Utlawed and pursued with Process of Utlary whilst they are attending upon him and made to be as the out-cast and reproach of the people and not be able to protect them in their just Rights and Liberties or that any of our Kings Servants should Lupina capita gerere be as men wearing Wolves heads which was the antient mark or note of infamy of such as were Utlawed in Criminal matters instead of honourable Liveries or marks of the Kings Servants in ordinary When in the 6th year of the Reign of King Henry the 4th Roger Oliver the Son of John Oliver being in obsequio Regis in Comitiva Johannis Lardner Capitanei Castri de Oye in partibus Piccardiae pro munitione
the Court of Common-Pleas nor by a Writ of Pone upon a Certiâ—rari out of the Chancery under his Teste meipso as â—f he were there present to direct it to be tryed in the Court of Kings-Bench coram nobis by a supposition that it should be there determined before himself neither did some of our Kings need to have holden Parliaments by their Substitutes or Commission as King Edward the third did in his absence to his Son Edward Duke of Cornwal and at another time unto Lionell Duke of Clarence another of his Sons if he could by any just or legal intendment have been supposed to have been there alwayes absolutely and to all purposes virtually present But if there should be a refusal by any of the Kings Servants in Ordinary to appear upon any Writs or Process issuing out of any of his Courts of Justice whilst they are in the Service of the King their Master yet when the King shall have discharged that refusal or contempt if it should be so called by a greater and more necessary command in the case of any of his Servants attending upon Him that contempt is no more to be insisted upon for if in such a case of his moeniall Servants his command in the necessary attendance upon his person or affairs in one place shall not amount to a Supersedeas or discharge of any supposed contempt of his Writs and Process and delegated Mandates in another And his commissionated Courts of Justice should adjudge his Servants to be guilty of a contumacy or contempt against his Courts of Justice in not obeying of his Process whilst they do attend upon his person in the safety and well being of Him and all his Subjects and of the Courts of Justice themselves they must separate themselves from themselves and themselves from the King which intrusted them with that authority by too much supposing his authority to be in themselves mistake fancy that authority in them to be Superiour to him that gave it erect to themselves a kind of Superiority over him which gave them that authority by and under which they do act and are impowred the bounds and limits whereof they should not go beyond or exceed For although there may be a contempt charged upon some one or more of the Kings many Servants attending in his Court or Pallace for disobeying or not performing some of his personal commands and upon the same party much about the same Time for a contempt for not obeying or performing the Precept or Process of his subordinate Judges by not appearing to some Action prosecuted before them and so a double contempt or contumacy against the King yet the contempt to the Kings personal command is and must needs be greater then that which is to his Justices or Courts of Justice and is more immediate then that which is but mediate concerns but some one particular Plaintiff not seldom in a malicious or unjust cause of Action or if just for some trivial hot headed uncharitable and unneighborly cause of Action as for Trespass of a Horse or Cow broken into his Pasture by the default or occasion of his own ill Fence or Hedges when the Beast knew as little of reason or property as the Plaintiff did of Religion or the rules of Christianity when that which is more immediately to the King may not a little but greatly concern the well or ill being of the whole Nation or of multitudes and in that general and universal concernment of the angry prosecutor himself when that which is but mediate and a lesser contempt to some one of the Kings Courts of Justice in not appearing to some of their Writs or Process made out in the Kings name and by his authority concerneth only a few particular persons And theâ—efore we should too much thwart those common principles of reason and understanding to deny the greater command its power and efficacy before the lesser and that of the King before that of his Justices or to punish and arrest any of the Kings Servants if they were not so justly entituled to the Priviledges aforesaid for all or the most part of Arrests by order or course of any Courts of Justice in civil Actions before appearance are grounded either upon contempts or propter suspitionem sugae to prevent running away for disobeying the lesser authority and a private and particular concernment to obey the greater or the commands of the King in just and lawful things as a Servant in matters relating to his service and in that to the weal publique or greatest concernment and may well be excused for failing in the lesser or private when he is by his Oath usually administred unto the Kings Servants truly and diligently to attend and wait and not to depart out of the Kings Court without licence had or obtained of the Lord Chamberlain or other the Officers of the Kings most honourable Houshold unto whom it appertaineth and to obey all and singular commandments given in charge on the behalf of the King and is not by his Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to lessen or abridâ—e any of the Kings Royal Jurisdictions Preheminences and Priviledges from and under which are legally derived the aforesaid Rights and Priviledges of his Servants who if they were not priviledged are not in the contrariety and conflict of superior and inferior commands to neglect those of the Superior where he is so bound and ingaged by the duty of a Subject and Servant and so many obligeing Oaths to obey the Writs or Precepts of an Inferior to whom they are under no Obligation of Oaths nor are to be compelled to break those Oaths and Obligations or to do impossible things when as id possumus quod de Jure possimus things unlawful should be ranked amongst the impossibles our Laws do assure us that Lex non cogit impossibilia that the Law doth neither ordain nor compel impossible things to be done or doth punish for the not doing of them But if a restless Spirit of opposition to the Kings Rights or Regalities shall not permit an acquiescence unto that which hath been already said in defence of that part of it which concerns the Priviledges of his Servants but that an objection must be picked up to support their factious incivilities that the King ought not to punish or imprison any for the breach of his Servants Priviledges in the causing of any of them to be Arrested or Outlawed without leave or licence first procured when the Writs and Process tending thereunto are made in his own Name and under his smal or lesser Seals as to Writs and Process issuing out of the Courts of Kings-Bench and Common-Pleas delegated and entrusted by him unto the two Lord Chief Justices thereof the answer will have no difficulty if it shal be as it ought to be acknowledged that those Writs Process seldome expressing that the Defend is the K. Servant are of course made
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 praedâ—cta 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
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 Episcâ—patus 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 portâ—rent 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 Nihâ—lominus 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 Deâ—itor 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
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 â—regit 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 â—aid 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
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 Aâ—â—aint against Jurors falsly swearing in their Verdicts Writs de Aâ—sisa continuanda to continue the prâ—â—â—â—dings upon an Assise Audita querela to relieve one that is oppressed by some Judgment Statute or Recognisance Writs de Certioraâ—i de tenâ—re 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 Evâ—â—entiam 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 Oxfâ—rd and the great Estate and Revenueâ—belonging 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 disâ—odged 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
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 auâ—hority 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 aâ—ter 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
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 moleâ—tando 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 Defâ—ndant 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
then next following and King Edward the 4th by vertue of his Kingly Prerogative as the Writ and the Record declared granted his Protection unto John Namby Gentleman Executor of William White alias Namby for himself and his Servants and their Lands and Estates to endure for three years very many of the Subjects of England in those dayes and the Reigns of our former Kings travelling on Pilgrimage for devotion or penance to Jerusalem or St. James of Compostella or which were Cruzadoed or voluntarily went unto the Holy Land so called for recovery of it in such numbers as about the year of our Lord 1204. being in the latter end of the Reign of King John sixty thousand English took the Cross for the Holy Land whose Protections saith Fleta were not in those dayes disallowed in the Courts of Justice because it was then understood to be in causa Dei the cause of God or for some which were sent on the Kings messages or affairs to Rome Normandy or Gascoigny in France or other parts beyond the Seas or in those many our English Warlike Expeditions and Armies sent to Jerusalem France Spain and Scotland or the Borders thereof in the Reigns of many or most of our Kings and Princes from William the Conquerors entring into England and the subduing of it untill the Reign of King James and into Wales or the Borders thereof untill the Reign of King Edward the third when the Nobility and principal part of the Gentry were even in those times more likely then the Commonalty or vulgar to be in debt and wanted not upon occasions the credit and good will of the Common people to trust them and freedom from Actions at Law and troubles in the mean time and the many thousands of our Tenants in Capite who by the Tenure of their Lands as well as by the bond and obligation of their Loyalty to their Kings and Princes were to attend them in the service of War not only upon their Summons and Commands in their Foreign Expeditions but at home in their defence against Rebellions and sudden Insurrections and had in the mean time no doubt Protections and freedom from Suits and Arrests whose Court Barons and Leets more then now orderly kept permitted not their Tenants disobedience unto them or their Jurisdictions or an enhance of the price of their Commodities and their Lands so entayled as they could not if they would either borrow or owe much money When the Nobility and Gentry like the Stars in our Hemisphere kept their courses and great Hospitalities addicted themselves to actions of greatness goodness charity and munificence and their numerous Tenants depending upon them returned them submissive and humble obedience a reverential awe and gratitude and held much of their Lands upon trust of performance of their Services and many Husbandry works instead of Rents and in that were more endebted to their Landlords and entrusted by them then their Landlords were unto them who did not as now they do with their Wives and Daughters resort to London to learn vice and vanities and run into Debt more than they should do nor make themselves at costly rates so great and oâ—ten purchasers of Transmarine Wares and Commodities which the small Income of the Customs in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when our Clothing and Exportation far exceeded our Importation will witness when the profit of her Customs in both was at first let to Farm but at 13000 l. per annum and afterwards at no more then 50000 l. per annum when there was not so great and consuming expences in Coaches Wine and other Foreign Toyes and Trifles when by reason of 600 Monasteries and Religious Houses and the great Retinues and number of Servants kept by them and the Nobility Bishops and Gentry and depending upon them the younger Children of the Nation were so largely provided for as there were not so many Trades or Apprentices in London as there have been of latter times so many Taverns Cooks or Trades of pride and luxury to entice the Nobility and Gentry into debts and expences when the rates and prices of their Wares and Commodities honester made and of Victuals and Houshold provisions were limited and bounded by our then better than now executed Laws and Trade was not let loose to all manner of fraud and unlawfull gains and the Companies or Corporations of Trades were not so many Combinations to adulterate and abuse the Trade of the Kingdom as now they do when there was not so frequent trusting by Trades-men as now of late only to encrease their gain double and raise their prices and make a more then ordinary usury upon the kindness they pretend to do their Customers by trusting of them when Trade and the furnishing of vice and excess had not made the Gentry so endebted to the City who are not in their Countreys or Neighbourhood so much under the lash of their complaints or prosecution when the Church-men by reason that some contracts were upon distrust of performance sworn and bound up by Oath would ratione sâ—andali sometimes take occasion to draw into their Courts the cognisance of Debts and Excommunicate them untill they were about the Reign of King Edward the first prohibited by the King and his Courts of Justice And Usury was as well before as long after accounted such a mortal sin as Christian Burial and the power of making last Wills and Testaments was denyed unto them the personal Estates of the Usurers confiscated the dying in debt reckoned a sin punishable in the next World all or some of which might give us the reason why there was in former times but very little complaint against Protections for most of that little which appears of the use or pleading of Protections in our Law-books or Records through so many past ages were in Pleas or Actions concerning Lands or Replevins c. but few in personal Actions or Actions of Debt and those which do in every Kings Reign appear in our Records to have been granted in respect of the many occasions and importunities which might otherwise have induced the granting of them to have been but a few in respect of many more which might have been granted if the prudence and care of our Kings had not restrained or limited their own power and authority therein for that there were then either few or out-lying over-grown or long-forborn Debts or the reason of the parties protected being imployed in the Kings Service which was and ever is to be accounted the interest of every man and a concernment of the Publique was enough to pacifie them and the care and reverence of the King and his business taught the people to obey rather then dispute that necessary part of his Prerogative which deserves our imitation when conform to the Laws of Nations Queen Elizabeth by the advice of as wise and carefull a Councel as any Prince of the World was ever blessed with did in
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 Hâ—ad 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 tâ—t 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 â—eed 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 Regaâ—i 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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 thâ—m and will better become him than those many which our murmurers were so well content to afford their Oliver the Protector of their intended slâ—very 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 misâ—called 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 Townâ—Clerk 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 aâ—terwards 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 â—o 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
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 arrestâ—d 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
of record under his Seal In Easter Term in the fourth year of that King in an Action of Trespass after a distress awarded against the Jurors and the Array challenged a Protoction was after a grand debate allowed Martin one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas going to the Justices of the Kings Bench to ask their advice and from thence into the Exchequer Chamber to Juni Chief Baron In Michaelmas Term in the 19th year of the Reign of that King a man being taken by a Capias had a Protection allowed quia moraturus for the victualling of a Fort in Scotland upon a probability that he came to London to buy victuals and that issue might be taken thereupon and a repeal obtained In Hillary Term in the same year Newton Justice said that if the Demandant cast a protection it lyeth not yet an Essoin of the Service of the King doth And where the King commandeth an Attorney to do him service whereby he appeared not and the Client loseth in the mean time his land and he brings a Writ of disceit against him then it would be against reason that the King should compell him to do him service and that he should not be Essoined for that service but in such a case it seems to be usual to record the Kings service and in that case the Essoiner shall be sworn that he was in the Kings service And that a woman may be in the Kings service for that she is Nurse or Landress and a man as his Carver In Michaelmas Term in the 22th year of the Reign of that King in an Action inter Brookesby and Everard Digby al jour de nisi prius a Protection was brought and although Paston was of opinion it was not allowable because it did not agree with the Record yet Ascue was of opinion that if the Protection said suscepimus in Protectionem it was to be allowed In Michaelmas Term in the 27th year of the aforesaid King an Essoin cast for one who was gone into the Holy-land was refused because six months were passed and the Defendant should be allowed a year and a day and it was said by the Judges that it was the like where the party was in service del Roy yet it was allowed to be good in a common Essoin and a common Essoin was cast accordingly And in an Action brought in the Exchequer by a Denizen against two Aliens and the Jury adjourned a Protection was brought by the one bearing date the first day of the Nisi prius and by the second bearing date the second day and both allowed as it was in a like case and as it was held by the Judges of the one Bench and the other in the case of the Lord Hungerford In Michaelmas Term in the 8th year of that Kings Reign Danby Justice said in the case of Sir Robert Hungerford that in one and the same day the Defendant may cast many Protections and it was said that no Protection quia profecturus purchased pending the plea is allowable if it be not in a Voyage Royal or with the King himself or for great business of the Realm as appeareth by the Statute made in the 13th year of the Reign of King Richard the 2d cap. 16. and Prisot chief Justice did bid the Defendant sue to the Privy Seal and bring a Certificate that his Captain by Indenture was to serve the King in his warrs which being shewed and it appearing that he was to go into Norusandie to serve under such as the King should appoint but because it appeared not by the Indenture nor the Protection that it was in the case of the Statute the Protection was not allowed In the same Term Richard Vere bringing a Protection quia moraturus super vitulationem ville Calesie and the Plaintiff averring that he was within the four Seas and not in the Kings service the Plaintiff was ordered upon a resummons to prove his averment In Easter Term in the 30th year of that Kings Reign after an Imparlance the Defendant bringing his Protection quia moraturu super salva custodia Castri Domini Regis de B. in partibus transmarinis that he was imployed in the safe custody of the Castle of B in the parts beyond the Seas and was afterwards seen in Court it was said that if a man protected be afterwards seen in England the Plaintiff may sue forth the Kings Innotescimus to repeal the Kings Letters Patents for the Protection And that if a man bringing his Protection at the Nisi prius if betwixt that and the day in bank the Protection be repealed there shall be a resummons sued and Danby said that the Protection until the repeal was alwayes allowable In Easter Term in the 35th year of the Reign of that King it was agreed to be law that where Justices of Nisi prius have no power to allow or disallow a Protection they ought to surcease In Hillary Term in the 38th year of the Reign of the said King a Protection being cast for one that was committed to the Fleet and had a Cepi corpus retorned against him Moyle Justice alledged that he might notwithstanding be in the Service of the King whereupon the next day after he was mainprised and the Protection was allowed until the Court should further consider of it In Hillary Term in the 39th year of the Reign of the said King a Protection being disputed because it wanted the usual form it was alledged that there needed no special Protection to go to Rome for that the Embassadors or Procurators of the King who go and remain there for the profit of the King and his Realm have never used to have such Protections and if they had it would have been seen before that time and that the King by his Prerogative may take a man into his protection where another is not to be disherited and Moyle one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas then said that the King might grant a Protection for a year and that being elapsed might grant another for the like Term c. but not at the first and that a Protection quia profecturus doth not lye pendente placito depending the Plea if it be not in a Voyage Royal or business of the Realm In Michaelmas Term in the second year of King Edward the fourth at the return of a Petit cape against the Husband and Wife which is a Judgement by defalt the Husband did cast an Essoin of the Service of the King which was allowed and it was in that case said by Moyle that a Protection of the King differed from an Essoin of his Service for that the intent and effect of the Protection is that the King is the parties Protector and hath taken him into his protection and defence In Hillary Term in the 7th year of the Reign of that King the Judges were of opinion that
a Protection cast quia moraturus that he remained with the Earl of Worcester who was Deputy to the Duke of Clarence was to be allowed for if the Duke by his Commission had power to make a Deputy it is reason that he which was with the Deputy in Service should be excused by the Protection In Trinity Term in the 11th year of that King where one of the Vouchees made a defalt the other had a Petit Capias awarded against him at the day of the retorn of the Petit Capias he that made the defalt brought a Protection which was adjudged to enure to them both In Hillary Term in the 21th year of the Reign of that King a Protection being granted to T. Rokes a Certiorari was directed to the Sheriffs of London to enquire if he attended in the Service of the King according to the tenor of the Protection or followed his own business and the Sheriffs of London certified that he did not attend the Service of the King but remained at London attending his own business whereupon the Plaintiff had an Innotescimus directed to the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas to repeal the said Protection and he shewed the Writ to the Court and prayed a resummons against the Defendant and had it In Hillary Term in the 21th year of the said Kings Reign after issue joyned upon a Writ of Entry and the Jury had appeared the Counsel for the Defendant prayed the Court to grant an Habeas Corpus for him and rhe Justices demanded of the Plaintiff and the Jury if they would agree unto it who consenting thereunto the Habeas Corpus was granted and the morrow after when the Jury appeared a Protection quia moraturus that the Defendant was in the Kings Service at Calais was brought to which being excepted that he was under age and that it appeared by his own sheweing that he was in prison it was answered that the Protection was of Record and to be believed before any such allegation and afterwards the Justices demanded several times of the Defendants Counsel if they would agree that thâ— Demandant and the Jury should be adjourned until the next day to the intent as was believed that the Demandant might in the mean time procure a repeal of the Protection which they supposed to be false and the Counsel for the Plaintiff praying time till the morrow to be advised touching the Protection which the Justices granted the Justices perusing again the Protection found that there was no default therein and said they ought to allow it which was done accordingly and the Jury was discharged And in the same year it was adjudged and declared to be Law that where a Tenant in a Precipe quod reddat had unduly purchased a Protection of the King whereby the Plaintiff was put without day and prejudiced that in that case he might have a Writ of disceit In Michaelmas Term in the fourth and fifth year of the Reign of King Philip and Queen Mary in a Writ of Entry in Le per brought by one Huggard against Knevet an Essoin was cast by one Anthony Knevet for Tho. Knevet that he was in the service of the King in the parts beyond the Seas and day thereupon given and some doubt arising amongst the Judges about the warranty of the Essoin and the form thereof and amongst the precedents which could be found that in the 35th year of the Reign of King Henry the sixth wherein the Abbot of Westminster was Plaintiff against VV. Yeoman of the Kings Buttery under the Kings Privy Seal not pleasing them but being adjudged insufficient the Judges were so unwilling to disappoint the purpose and expectation of the Supreme Authority as they themselves framed and devised a Writ to excuse the absence of the said T. Knivet And although in Trinity Term in the same year the Queen who began her Reign the 26th day of July 1553. did by her Attorney General by advice of the Lords of her Privy Councel demand the opinion of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas if a prisoner in the Fleet upon an Execution who might be very useful in her wars might be licenced by the Queen with his Keeper to go unto Barwick for the defence thereof it was resolved by all the Judges of both the Benches that he could not be dismissed by her Protection for that he was there to be kept in safe custody Yet in the fourth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth she did by her Letter under her Signe Manual and Signet directed unto Tirrel Warden of the Fleet cause Thurland who was in Execution for debt to go with his Keeper as hath been before mentioned about some affairs of hers and the publique So tender were the Judges in the antient and past ages of the Supreme Authority they sate under and the honor of their Princes which imparted unto them so much of the honor and dignity they enjoyed and so careful of the safety and concernment of the publique which was or should be the greatest care and interest of every man and had such an awe and veneration of Majesty in which the Supreme Authority and governing power resides as where they perceived any Essoin of the service of the King unduly cast or Protection not legally granted as by mis-information or necessity of preserving the publique peace and tranquility or upon reason of State they might sometimes happen they did not presently reject the Writs of Protections of our Kings but remit those that excepted against them to petition for their repeal by Innotescimus and where Essoins of some imployed in their service were cast did admit them put the cause without day and order the Essoiners in the mean time to bring their Warrants which if they failed a resummons of them was awarded and the fine of twenty shillings penalty imposed by an Act of Parliament sometimes paid and at other times pardoned and as careful of the high Authority of his Soveraign was Sir Orlando Bridgeman late Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas when he refused to bayl upon a Habeas Corpus one that was committed by the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold for Arresting one of the Kings Servants in ordinary without licence and advised him to submit himself to the Lord Chamberlain that humour and fashion of kicking against the Supreme Authority and wrastling with the Lords Anointed in seeking to be bayled upon Writs of Habeas Corpus granted by the inferiour and delegated powers for commitments upon contempts by the Superiour being so novel and unusual as the Books and Records of the Law or our Courts of Justice have afforded us no mention at all or very little of them until the Reign of King James or the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr when by the unhappy arguments upon the case of the Habeas Corpora in the beginning of the Reign of King Charles
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 â—os 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 Socieâ—ate 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
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
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 Triâ—â—lce 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 Biâ—starr for his service done Serjeantiam in Capella sua scilicet illâ—m 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 Deâ—n of his Chappel to govern and see good orders obsâ—rved therein the later whereof hath his lodgings in the Kings Courts or Pallace and untill the unhappy remitting of the Royal Pourveyance had his Beâ—che at Court or diet the Bishop of â—â—â—chester and his Successors to be Prelates of the 〈◊〉 another Clark of his Closset as the Bishop 〈◊〉 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 aâ—â—rare 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 Cuiâ—â—ius 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
their servants with them to be under his special protection and defencc and ought not for any debt trespass or other contract whatsoever to be arrested or any way imprisoned in the mean time And that many such men comming to Parliament with their men and Servants have been during the time of Parliament arrested by them who had full knowledge that they so arrested by them were of the Parliament in contempt of his Majesty great dammage of the party and delay of the business of the Parliament did Petition the King to establish that if any hereafter do arrest any such man comming to the Parliament as aforesaid or any of their men or servants or any thing attempt contrary to the said Custome he should make fine and ransome to the King and render treble dammages to the party grieved Which was no more than what the Aurea Bulla or Golden Bull confirmed by Charles the 4 th Emperor of Germany in his Edict touching the seven Electors of the Empire and the manner of their election of the Emperors bearing date in January 1256 did ordain that the said Electors or their deputies or Embassadors in their going to Frankfort upon the Main tarrying and retorne from thence should with 200 Horse attending each Elector be freed from all injuries molestations process or arrests and in their going and retorn have the like and a safe conduct with the like freedome and priviledge as they passed through each of the other Electors Territories and the like in their meetings or assemblies at the Comitia Diets or Parliaments of the Empire and should have their provisions and necessaries at reasonable rates and that those that should molest them in their persons or Estates should be prâ—scribed and banished and forfeit their lands and estates And it appeared to be so reasonable to the French as before the Ordinance of Moulins which was made and verified by themselves in Parliament which provided that the Counsellors Judges or Senators in the Courts of Parliament might be arrested for debt after four moneths legal notice or Summon did ad adjudge that it belonged not to a Subalterne or inferiour Judge ordonner contre la personne d' un Senateur personne privilegie que les Senateurs partem corporis principis faciebant to award process against a Senator being a person priviledged that the Senators were a part of the body politique of the Prince Qu'il estoit honteux voir en prison ceux qui en un momeat se pouvoyent seoir au senat that it would be a shame to see a Senator in Prison which might shortly after sit in the Senate that as their wages were priviledged from being arrested for a Debt so where their persons Que les Rayons de ceste Souverainete du Roy ne se ponvoient separer d'avec eux that the Rayes of the Kings Soveraignty could not be separated from them Those or the like Protections privileges immunities being in England accompted beleived to be so necessary to the service and affairs of the King and the weal publick as in the same year and Parliament the Commons did Petition the King that whereas All the Lords Knights Citizens and Burgesses and their servants coming to Pariiament by the Kings Writ are in comming staying and retorning under his protection Râ—yal and that many mischiefs and impeachments do often happen unto the said Lords Knights Citizens and Burgesses and their maenial servants at those times as by Murther Maims and Batteries by people lying in wait or otherwise for which due remedy is not yet provided and that namely and particularly in this Parliament an horrible Battery and Mischeif was committed upon Richard Chedder Esq who came to the Parliament with Sr. Thomas Brook Knight one of the Knights for the County of Somerset and Maenial with him by John Sallage otherwise called John Savage whereby the said Richard Chedder was imblemished and maimed to the peril of death that he would please to ordain upon that matter sufficient remedy and for other such causes semblable so as the punishment of him might give example and terror unto others not to commit the like mischeifs in time to come that is to say If any man shall kill or murther any that is come under the Kings Protection to Parliament that it be adjudged Treason and if any do maim or disfigure any such coming under the Kings Protection that he lose his hand and if any do assault or beat any suoh so come that he be imprisoned for a year and make fine and Ransome to the King and that it would please the King of his special grace hereafter to abstain from Chartere of pardon in such cases unless that the parties be fully agreed Upon which they obtained an Act of Parliament and a Proclamation that the said John Savage should appear and render himself into the Kings Bench within a quarter of a year after and if he did not he should pay to the party endamaged double dammages to be taxed by the discretion of the Judges of the said Bench for the time being or by Inquest if need be and make fine and ransom at the Kings will and that it should be so done in time to come in like cases Whereupon the said John Savage not appearing upon the said Proclamation and being prosecuted in the Court of Kings Bench by the said Richard Chedder and convicted and the Justices giving no full judgment therein but sending a writ of inquiry of damages several times to the Sheriffs of London who did nothing thereupon did at length upon view of his wounds and maim not think it necessary to proceed by a Jury upon a writ of inquiry of damage but according to their discretion did adjudge that the said Richard Chedder should recover against the said John Savage his damages which were taxed at one hundred marks and likewise taxed him to pay the double thereof being another hundred markes Our Statutes and acts of Parliament being then as in former times and all along until these later times usually or most commonly ushered in and introduced by Petitions to the King in Parliament as the Parliament Rolls and Journalls compared with the printed Statutes or acts of Parliament will abundantly testifie And such a care was taken of the conservation of those priviledges As in the 8 th year of the Raigne of King Henry the 6 th at the request of the Commons in Parliament one William Larke servant to William Mildred a Burgesse in Parliament for London being committed to the Fleet upon an Execution for debt was delivered by the priviledge of the Commons House and authority given by the King to the Chancellor to appoint certain by Commission to apprehend him after the Parliament ended to satisfie the said Debt and Execution In the same year and Parliament for that the prelatee and Clergy of the Realm of England called to the Convocation and their servants and families that
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 quieâ—ness 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 Pâ—ecedent 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 Boscâ—m 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
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 dâ—cere 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 whiâ—h 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
then Kings Mother Or the popular greatly belov'd Duke of Norfolk out of the County of Norfolk And Sir Edward Coke that great Lawyer so deservedly call'd might if he were now again in his house of clay and that Earthly Honor which his great Acquests in the Study and Practice of the Law had gained him do well to inform us that the Report of Husseys the Chief Justice who is by him mistaken and called the Attorney-General to King Henry the Seventh was any more than an Hear-say and nothing of kin to the Case put by the King whereupon they were commanded to assemble in the Exchequer Chamber whether those that had in those tossing and troublesom times been Attainted might sit in Parliament whilst their Attainders were reversing And the Case concerning the King himself whether an Attainder against himself was not void or purged by his taking upon him the Crown of England or that which in that Conference was brought in to that Report impertinently and improperly to what preceded or followed by the Reporter of that Conference was not at the most but some by discourse and not so faithfully related as to mention how farre it was approved or wherein it was gain-sayed by all or any or how many of the Judges it being altogether unlikely that if Hussey had been then the Kings Attorney-General he would have cast in amongst those Reverend Judges such an illegal and unwarrantable Hear-say of an opinion of the Lord Chief Justice Markham in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth whom that King as our Annalist Stow recordeth displaced for condemning Sir Thomas Cooke an Alderman of London for Treason when it was but Misprision said unto that King That the King cannot Arrest a man upon suspition of Treason or Felony because if he should do wrong the Party cannot have an Action against the King without a bestowing some Confutation Reason or Arguments against it which the Reporter was pleased to silence And was so weak and little to be believ'd an Opinion as the practice of all the Ages since have as well as the Times preceding disallowed and contradicted it and whether such an Opinion can be warranted by any Law or Act of Parliament And whether the King may not take any Cause or Action out of any of His Courts of Justice or Equity and give Judgment thereupon and upon what Law Reason or Ground it is not to be done For if the Answer which Sir Edward Coke made to what the King alledged That the Law was grounded upon Reason and that he and others had reason as well as others That true it was God had endued His Majesty with excellent science but His Majesty was not learned in the Laws of England and Causes which concern the Life and Inheritance or Goods of his Subjects which are not to be decided by natural Reason and Judgment of Law which Judgment requires long study and experience And when the King was therewith greatly offended and replyed That he should then be under the Law which was Treason to be said answered that Bracton saith That Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo Lege That a King ought not to be under man but God and the Law shall be compared with the Opinion of Dyâ—r Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas and the Judges of that Court in the Case betwixt Greâ—don and the Bishop of Lincoln and the Dean and Chapter of Worcester upon a Demurrer in a Quare Impedit in the eighteenth and nineteenth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth reported by Mr. Edmond Plowden as great and learned a Lawyer as that Age afforded and one whom Sir Edward Coke doth acknowledge to be no less did allow and were of opinion That the King cannot be held to be ignorant of the Law because He is the Head of the Law and ignorance of the Law cannot be allowed in the King there will be as little cause as reason to dote upon such Conclusions especially when the erronious Mis-application and evil Interpretation of that alledged out of Bracton will be obvious to any that shall examine the very place cited that his meaning was that where he said that the King was sub Deo Lege under God and the Law it was that he was onely non uti potentia sed judicio ratione And in other places of his Book speaking who primo principaliter possit debeat judicare who first and principally shall and may judge saith Et sciendum quod ipse Rex non alius si solus ad hoc sufficere possit cum ad hoc per virtutem Sacramenti teneatur astrictus And it is to be understood that the King Himself and none other if he alone can be able is to do it seeing He is thereunto obliged by His Oath Ea vero quae Jurisdicâ—ionis sunt Pacis ea quae sunt Justiciae Paci annexa ad nullum pertinent nisi ad Coronam Dignitatem Regiam nec a Corona seperari poterint cum faciant ipsam Coronam for that which belongeth to his Jurisdiction and that which belongeth to Justice and the Peace of the Kingdom doth belong to none but the Crown and Dignity of the King nor can be separated from the Crown when it makes the Crown so as those who should acknowledge the strength and clearness of a Confutation in that which hath been already and may be said against those Doctrines of Sir Edward Coke may do well to give no entertainment unto those his Opinions which nulla ratione nulla authoritate vel ullo solido fundamento by no reason authority or foundation can be maintained but to endeavor rather to satisfie the world and men of law and reason whether a Soveraign Prince who as Bracton saith habet omnia Jura sua in manu suâ— quae pertinent ad Regni gubernaculum habet etiam Justiciam Judiciam quae sunt Jurisdictiones ut ex Jurisdictione sua sicut Dei Minister Vicarius hath all the Rights in his hand which appertaineth to the Government of the Kingdom which are Jurisdictions and as His Jurisdiction belongeth unto Him as He is Gods Vicar and Minister is in case of Suspition of Treason or Felony where His ever-waking Intelligence and careful Circumspections to keep Himself and People in safety shall give Him an Alarm of some Sedition Rebellion or Insurrection and put on His Care and Diligence to a timely Endeavor to crush or spoil some Cockatrice Eggs busily hatching to send to His Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings Bench or in his absence out of the Term some Justice of Peace for a Warrant to Arrest or Apprehend the party offending or suspected which our Laws and reasonable Customs of England did never yet see or approve and when such offenders are to be seized as secretly as suddenly Or what Law History or Record did ever make mention of so unusual undecent
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
and the Responsa prudentum of their Commissionated Justices and the Reasonings and Dictates of those Disciples of refined Reason and how wide also is the difference betwixt Deliberation and things spoken of a sudden betwixt Arguments solemnly made both at the Bar and at the Bench and that which passeth from them obiter or in transitu hastily and without any premeditation or in passage or as circumstantial to some other matter or when it was not subjectum Argumenti the subject or material part of the Argument but came in as foreign or was not the principal Design thereof or was but as some of the Law Reports do mention other things to have been spoken onely ad mensam as they sate at Dinner or Supper or in their private Conferences or per Auditum by Hear-say or Report of another coming in from a Court or Business at Law where they that made the Report were not present neither were those Sons of Wisdom ignorant that Laws were to be so subservient to Government as not to incumber the just means thereof and the Power and Authority which should protect and take care of it For although Kings and Princes ought in performance of their Oaths taken at their Coronation to make the Methods and Rules of their Governments where Justice and Reason shall perswade it to come up as near as they can Legum suarum praescripto to the minde and direction of their established and allowed Laws and reasonable Customs of the Kingdom and moderate and guide their Power as Bracton saith to the right end for which it was ordained yet the Suprema Lex Salus Populi ne quid detrimenti Respublica capiat the Supream Law to heed above all things next to the will and commands of the Almighty King of Kings the safety of the People and Weal Publique committed to their charge wherein their own is not a little concern'd being not to be neglected enjoyns the care and observation of that great Principle in the Eternal Laws of Nature and right Reason that there ought to be in all Kings Princes and Governors such a Power and Means extraordinary as may answer the purpose of Government procure Justice relieve Necessities and repel any the Incursions of Dangers which present Laws or the greatest fore-cast could never provide or before-hand arm against when Time Necessities or Hazards imminent cannot tarry for the popular or long deliberations or assent of a Multitude who can sooner bring upon themselves a ruining and fatal Discord than procure any help at present and that to oblige Government to a close and pertinacious adhering to Laws or Rules already established which can yield them no relief or at the most none at present may be as inconvenient and destructive as to limit a Captain Master or Pilot of a Ship going to Sea what Orders and no other he must observe when Pirates or Enemies assaults unlooked for the Furies of the merciless Windes and Seas or those many other Misfortunes of which the Seas do produce as great a plenty as they do variety shall rush or break in upon him and must of necessity require other helps or directions and cannot always sayl by Card or Compass or in sight of a conducting Pole-Star but most sometimes for the preservation of himself the Ship and Passengers lowr his Sayls cut his Cables or Main-mast or throw Goods over-board to be recompensed by those whose good and safety was procured by it Or might be as fatal as it would be to an Army when a General or Commander of it shall be pinnion'd and fetter'd with Instructions or Authorities ill calculated and must not go beyond them when their Cares Arts and Stratagems are not to be before-hand prescribed by Laws Instructions or Rules of War but are to be used and practised as Occasions Opportunities Advantages or Disadvantages Successes Dangers or Misfortunes shall advise And therefore if we look down from the hills of Time into the valleys of the Ages past and take a view of the Laws and Constitutions of our Princes the Records and Monuments of their Justice distributed by themselves or the Judges their Substitutes the weight of the Reasons of their Judgements therein and the Obedience which the People have from Age to Age readily paid unto them they that will not wilfully sacrifice to a peevish Obstinacy may see cause enough for our Kings as well to make use of extraordinary Helps and Remedies in order to Justice and the Weal Publique as their delegated Judges have done by that which they call Office and Discretion or course of Court and Equity of Statutes in many Causes too many to be here instanced when the Laws would too much streighten them or not permit them to do that which Justice would require or expect at their hands to believe that the no unfaithful or unlearned Judges in the former Ages did not incroach upon the Liberties of the People or wanted a Warrant of right Reason when they had such a veneration and respect to the Prudence of divers of our Princes their Reason and Necessities of State and the preservation of the People and in doing of Justice as in the sixth year of the Reign of King Richard the First Adam of Benningfield and Gundreda his Wife having brought a Writ of Dower against Robert Mallivell and Pavie his Wife for seven Carves of Land in Raveneston with the Appurtenances in the County of Nottingham of which the said Gundreda had a Fine levied unto her in the Court of King Henry by Robert Mallivell Father of the said Robert Mallivell and thereof produced the Chirograph and alledged that the said Robert the Son had disseized them in the War or Rebellion of Earl John the Kings Brother and was with him in the War against the King at Kingeshage and that by reason of the Seisin of the said Robert by the said Earl John the Land was taken into the Kings hands as Hugh Bardo witnessed but the said Robert pleaded that he paid a Fine to the King for it and for that Land to have his Lands again and for that produced the Kings Letters to the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire who attested the truth thereof Et Dominus Cancellarius dicit quod ipse accepit ab ore Domini Regis quod ipse redderet Seisinam terrarum omnibus illis qui disseisiti fuerunt per Comitem Johannem dicit quod ratum habeâ—ur quod ipsi disseisiti fuerunt per Comitem Johannem inde consideratum est quod magis ratum habetur quod Dominus Rex ore precipit quam quod per literas mandavit quod Adam Gundreda habeant Seisinam suam and the Lord Chancellor witnessed that he was commanded by the King by word of mouth that he should make Livery of their Lands to all which were disseized by the said Earl John which would have required a good Warrant in a matter concerning so many and said that it was proved that they
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 praediâ—tus 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
libertatis privilegij praedictorum laesionem manifestam to the prejudice of the rights of the Crown and violation of the liberty and priviledge aforesaid hujusmodi vijs modis quibus poterint praecanere libertatem privilegia sua praedicta manu tenere cupientes And that they were desirous by all the ways and means they could to hinder such doings so prejudicial unto them and were resolved to maintain the Liberties and Priviledges of the Crown And not be able to protect his Houshold and domestick Servants in whose daily service and continual attendance both our Kings and their Subjects were more concerned than they could be by any the service or attendance of the Officers or Clerks in the Court of Chancery Which the Lords in Parliament did so well understand to be a Right inherent and due unto Royal Majesty as in the three and fortieth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth they did in the Case of William Huggen one of the Queens Servants arrested upon an Execution send the Gentleman-Usher attending upon their House to the Prison of the Fleet to bring him before them and upon view of Precedents of some of their own Servants delivered though none of any the Kings or Queens did in conformity to the reason thereof cause the Plaintiff upon the Defendants promise to pay him to release him and the Under-Sheriff being committed to the Fleet was three days after upon his Petition discharged And in the first year of the Reign of King James The Earl of Suffolk Lord Chamberlain of the Kings House did procure Nicholas Reading one of his Majesties Servants arrested by an Execution at the Suit of Sir Edward Hales to be brought before the Lords in Parliament by a Writ of Habeas Corpus and so by the Plaintiffs consent released the Order mentioning that such an Arrest was contrary to the honor and priviledge of that Court. Or that not only the Judges of the superior Courts the Justices of Peace can as they have done it antiently and commonly imprison men for Contempts of them or their written Orders or verbal Commands without which they power could not Tueri Jurisdictionem uphold that Authority which the King had given them but the Constables of every Parish in London whose Offices and Authority at the first were saith the judicious and learned Lambard but as the fingers to the hands or body of the Constable of England a great Officer of the King and his Crown can in their Night-watches command better men than themselves to the Compters or London Prisons there to lodge the remainder of the night among the debauched or unruly sort of people calld Rats or Night-walkers but for angring his worship or not believing that he is a Prince of the Night the Kings Image and none of the smaller parcels of mortality and shall have so much connivence at his no seldom committed Follies as no other Habeas Corpus shall be granted to the injured person thn a submissive paying of his Fees of imprisonment and procuring himself as well as he can to be discharged by the greater discretion of the Lord Mayor or an Alderman before whom he is the next morning to be brought with his not to be discerned Fault or offences and if he should seek afterwards to be recompenced for such an affront is to expect as little favour as may be for himself and as much as may be for his adversary And that the King under whose Power and Authority they acted should not be able by his own immediate command or the Warrant of some of the great Officers of his Crown or Houshold to punish by imprisonment any contempts committed against himself and his soveraign power by the arresting of his domestick and houshold Servants without Licence who are neare unto his person and imployed in his hourly or daily service or attendance or that his power and Authority should not be efficacious or valid in his own case or immediate concernment and should be valid and sufficient to punish such as either contemned or abused his Justices and Servants extraordinary who are more remote from his person in the administration of his Justice As when Eustace de Parles and his brother were by King Edward the first in the one and twentieth year of his Reign committed to the Tower of London for abusing and striking in Westminster Hall William de Bereford one of his Justices of his Court of Common-Pleas And King Edward the third by his Justices and Authority punished the Bayliffs of Ipswich by the Forfeiture and Loss of their places seised the Liberties of the Town and delivered the Custody thereof to another during the Kings pleasure and made the Bayliffs of the Town to deliver in Court their Staves of Office for that they had suffered an unruly multitude to feast and revel with certain Malefactors condemned by the Justices of Assize and after their departure made a Mock game of them in sitting upon the Tribunal and Fining them and their Clerks Or that any should think it reasonable or no disservice of the King or his not to be incumbred Affairs to arrest any of his Houshold Servants without a Licence first obtained And shall at the same time decry or declaim against the Arresting of a Judge sitting in his delegated Court of Justice or travelling in the Circuit by and under the Kings Commission at the Suit of any private person or the Arresting and Imprisonment of an Admiral or Vice-Admiral going to Sea or a Commander or Governor of a Castle Fort or Garison upon the like occasion and think it reasonable that the King in reference to the Weal-publique in those his affairs and concernments should by priviledge protect and shelter them A right understanding whereof and of that which hath been before alleaged and the reasons supporting those Judgments of the not ignorant or unworthy but very learned grave and upright Judges in those former Ages and Times and of the Duties Honor and Respects which were and ought to be paid to the Soveraignty just and necessary means of Government assented unto by our Lawes and reasonable Customs of England and in praxi observantia junioris Aevi in the practise and course of Law in the succeeding Ages not denied by any positive or well interpreted Law may grant a Proeibition and give a Checque or Restraint to those opinions so of late hatch'd and hug'd against too many of the Actions of Authority in order to Government and the Weal-publique the necessity of preventing Evils before they happen or diverting abating or lessening them after they are happened and invite them to forsake their overmuch adoration of Sir Edware Cokes aforesaid Errors and believe Sir Thomas Ridley a Doctor of the civil Lawes and no stranger to our Common-Lawes who no longer ago than the beginning of the Reign of King James in his Book intituled A view of the Civil Ecclâ—siastical and Temporal
neque regnum salvum incolume neque regia vis dignitas elucescere possit there being certain properties or qualities requisite to a Superiority without which neither a Kingdome can be in any safety nor the Kingly Honour and Dignity can manifest or shew it self And if Judges and Magistrates have a kind of participation thereof imparted unto them by their Soveraign majore ratione regum eos constituentium hisque fascibus â—tque Majestate decorantium Regia Majestas nuncupabitur with greater reason Kings who adorned them with those Ensigns or resemblances as it were of Regality and bestowed it upon them are not to want or be without it the Majesty of Kings being so much appointed and approved by God himself as he made Corah Dathan and Abiram and their Children and favorers the dire examples of his wrath and punishment but for murmuring against Moses and Aaron and saying they took too much upon them and so imprinted a reverence and esteem of Kings in the hearts and minds of mankind as Joab King Davids general of his Army having fought against Raab of the Children of Ammon would not when he was ready to do it until he had invited David to come and have the Honor of taking it least that City should be afterwards called by the name of Joab that took it And Nebucadrezzar King of Babilon during the Captivity of Jehoiakim King of Judah could attribute so much to the Rights of Majesty in Kings as he spake kindly unto him and set his Throne above the Thrones of the Kings who were with him in Babilon Wherein certainly the sad hearted people of Israel in Captivity with him did take it to be their Duty as well as their Interest to rejoyce in that parcell of Humanity and Honor which was done unto him when as long before the Palatia or Curiae Palaces of their Kings were so highly Honored by them as the 122 Psalm of the Kingly Prophet David exhorted that people to Pray that Peace might be within the Walls and Prosperity within her Palaces The Glory and Honor of Solomon was accompted to be no less than the Interest Delight and Joy of the people of Israel when after his Feast upon the Dedication of the Temple and his Sacrifice of the Peace offerings they Blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyfull and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Loâ—d had done for David his Servant and for Israel his people The Romans so experimented the Honor of their Emperors living or dead to be the great Interest of their people as they that fled to their Statues were protected from their Pursuers whether it were in Civil matters or criminal The Germans their Successors in that Empire took it ill in the Reign of their Charles the fifth Emperour who was likewise King of Spaine that the Spanish Grandees or other of that Nobility did give so much Honor as they usually did to their Princes and Emperors cases of Treason only excepted And it was beleived to be so much an Interest of our English true hearted Ancestors to be as carefull as they were Jealous of the Honor of their Kings As when Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury would in the Reign of King William Rufus peevishly hold on his resolution of disparaging of it in going to Rome to the Pope for his Pall and confirmation the great men and almost all the Nobility of the Kingdom and the other Bishops Assembled in Parliament at Rockingham Castle concerning that obstinacy of Anselme the Bishops and and many of the Nobility declared unto that Archbishop then present that the whole Kingdom did complain of him that he sought to take away the Honor of the King his Crown and Dignity and delivered their opinions that Quicunque Regiae dignitatis consuetudines tollit coronam simul regnum tollit unum quippe sine alio decenter haberi non posse whosoever took away any thing from the Kings Regality and Dignity took away at the same time both his Crown and Kingdom for the one could not Honorably subsist without the other King Edward the 3d by the advice of the Lords and Commons in Parliament in the 13th year of his Reign did Ordain that in case the Keepers of the Priviledges of the Hospitlers should incroach upon the Kings Jurisdictions and offend the Kings Dignity they should beware from thenceforth that they usurpe not any Jurisdiction in prejudice of the King and his Crown and if they did their Superiors should be charged for their fact as much as if they had been convict upon their proper Act. In a Parliament holden in the two and fortieth year of the aforesaid Kings Reign it was declared by the Lords and Commons therein Assembled that they could not assent to any thing which tended to the disherâ—son of the King and his Crown to which they were sworn The Lords and Commons in Parliament in the 14th year of the Reign of King Richard the second did pray the King that the prerogative of him and his Crown may be kept and that all things done or attempted to the conâ—rary might be redressed and that he might be as free as any of his Progenitors ever were and in the 15th year of his Reign did in Parliament again require that he would as lawfully as any of his Progenitors enjoy his Prerogative Richard Earl of Arundell in the 17 year of the Reign of the aforesaid unfortunate Prince did complain that John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster who was then moulding the Sesign which his Son afterwards accomplished by usurpation of the Throne did go Arm in Arm with the King and that it beseemed not the Dukes men to wear the same Color of Livery that the Kings did By an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Reign of King Henry the 7th the Officers or Tenants of the King were not to be retained by Liveries with others And divers of the great Nobility did in the Reign of King Henry the Eight make it one of their Articles of high Treason and great misdemeanors against Cardinal VVolsey the great ingrosser of that Kings favor and manager of his Authority for that he being suspected to have the French Pox had stood and talked so near the King as to breath in his face The extent and verge of whose Royal house or Palace at VVhitehall and the Liberties and Priviledges thereof were so little desired to be lessened or diminished as the Parliament did in the 28th year of his Reign Ordain that the Park of St. James and the street leading from Charing-cross to the Sanctuary-gate at Westminster and all the Houses Buildings Lands and Tenements on both sides of the same street or way from the said Crosse unto Westminster-hall scituate lying and being betwixt the water of the Thames on the East part and the said Park-wall on the VVest part and so forth thorough all
Lands in antient Demesn to the prejudice of the Lord and for those that are Summoned to the Sheriffs turn out of their own Hundred a Writ de libertate allocanda for a Citizen or Burgesse to have his Priviledge allowed when he is impleaded contrary thereunto and a Writ de Consuâ—tudinibus servitiis a Writ of right close against a Tenant which deforceth his Lord of the Services due unto him and a Writ to exempt a man from the view of Frank pledge when he is not there resident although all men are obliged thereunto by reason of their Lands not their habitation and as Bracton saith a view of Frank pledg is res quasi Sacra quia solam personam Regis respicit introducta sit pro pace utilitate Regis as it were a Sacred matter or thing in regard it taketh care of the Kings person and was introduced for his Peace and Profit should by the rule of gratitude if there were nothing of right or duty to perswade it not tell how to obstruct that so antient Claim of Priviledge of the Kings Servants when it will ever be as Consonant to Law and right Reason for the Kings Servants not to be disturbed or prejudiced in their duties and attendance upon the King as it is for any others Of his people and Subjects being not his Servants when by a Statute made at Gloucester in the 30th year of the Reign of King Edward the first the King himself as that Act of Parliament mentioneth providing for the Wealth of the Realm and the more full Administration of Justice as to the Office of a King belongeth the discreet men of the Realm as well of high as low degree being called thither it was provided and ordained that when men were to claim or shew their Liberties within a time of 40 days prefixed and were before the King that is to say in his Court of Kings-Bench where himself is by Law supposed to sit they should not be in default before any Justices in the Circuits for the King of his especial grace hath granted that he will save that party harmless and if the same party be impleaded upon such manner of Liberties before one or two of the aforesaid Justices the same Justices before whom the Party is impleaded shall save him harmless before the other Justices and so shall the King also before him when it shall appear by the Justices that so it was in Plea before them and if the aforesaid Party be afore the King so that he cannot the same day be before the said Justices in their Circuits the King shall save that party harmless before the aforesaid Justices in their Circuits for the day whereas he was before the King And not at all agreeable to reason that the Franchises and Liberties granted by our Kings to the Counties Palatine of Chester Lancaster Durham the Cinque ports the City of Gloucester with the Barton or little Territory so called annexed unto it the large extent of the Liberty of the Bishop of Ely that of ten Hundreds to the Bishop of Winchester in or near Somersetshire Seven Hundreds in or near Gloucestershire Claimed by Sir Robert Atkins Knight of the Bath the large extents and compass of the Liberties and Soke of Dâ—ncaster in the County of York and of Sheffeild Rotherham and Hallomshire in the same County Grantham and its large Soke and Liberties in the County of Lincoln Tindall in Hexamshire in the County of Northumberland and many an hundred more of Liberties and Franchises not here specified exclusive to all others intermedling therein should by the power of the Kings Grants or Allowance and a just reverence and respect of their Neighbours and Tenants have and enjoy a Priviledge and Civility not to have their Servants Arrested or Imprisoned without complaint first made to their Lords or Masters or leave asked upon any of the Writs Process or Warrants of their own Liberties or Courts before they suffer their Bailiffs or Officers to Arrest any of their Servants or upon the Warrants or Process of any other the Kings Courts untill a Writ of non omittas propter aliquam libertatem claimed by them shall be after a not Execution of the first be awarded either or both of which may give a sufficient or large respite for the parties Prosecuted to satisfie pacifie or prolong the patience of an eager or furious Creditor and that the King who gave and indulged those Liberties should not be able to deserve or command a like Licence in the Case of any of his own Servants to be demanded of him either upon a Process made out by the owner or his Substitutes of the same Liberties or any other Warrant or Process directed to the Owner or his Subordinates of that Liberty Or should not have as much Priviledge for his Servants as the Miners in the Peak-hills in Derbyshire or those of the Stanneries in Devonshire and Cornwall not to be Sued or Prosecuted out of their Berghmote or Court of Stanneries or disturbed in their Works or business Or that his Servants should not as well deserve their Priviledges to be continued unto them as the Kings Tenants in antient Demesn who upon the only reason and accompt that they were once the Kings Tenants and did Plow and Sow his Lands for the maintenance and Provision of his Houshold and Family are not yet by the Tenure of those Lands of which there are very many Mannors and great quantities in England Ousted of those their Immunities or denyed them but the very Tenants at Will who are as they say here to day and gone to morrow do claim them and are not in any of the Kings Courts of Justice debarred of those exemptions although those Mannors and Lands are very well known to have been long ago Granted away and Aliened by the King or his Royal Progenitors since passed from one Owner to another for many Generations the effect by an Indulgence Permission or Custom contrary to the general and every where approved Rule or Maxime that cessante causa tollitur effcâ—tus the cause or reason of the thing ceasing the effect should cease continuing after the Cause ceased in so much as many do now enjoy those Priviledges who are no Tenants of the King neither have any thing to do with his most Honourable Houshold or have any Relation thereunto For if all the depths of Reason and Humane Understanding were Sounded Searched and dived into by the Sons of men all the Ingenuity of Mankind will never be able to find or assign a Cause or Reason why the House of Commons in Parliament have heretofore Petitioned our Kings for a Freedom from Arrests or Imprisonment or to Punish any the Offenders therein if they had any doubt of his want of a legal Power and Authority therein to grant it or why the business or Service of the King concerning himself or the Weal Publick should so
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 Safeâ—y 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 canonâ—ci 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 Crimâ—nal 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 Eâ—y 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 Constablâ—s 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
Occasion what was the Reason the Lord Mayors Officers were not to be put upon such Offices and was answered with a Reason given because they were to attend him Replied do not you think that to be a Reason as much or more in my case as your own Must Westminster the Abby or Church whereof was first founded by King Lucius a Brittish King upon a piece of Land so incult as it was called Thorney or the Island of Thornes then accompted to be two miles distant from London measured it may be unto Ludgate and after the better building and enlarging thereof by King Edward the Confessor honoured as it hath been ever since Regum nostrorum sepultura Regalium repositorium with the usual and designed place of the Buriall of our Kings and the Custody and keeping of the Royal Vestments and Ornaments used at their Coronations an Honourable Office and Trust now Claimed and enjoyed by the Dean of that Collegiate Church confess and acknowledge that by the happy Neighbourhood of our Kings Royal Palace near adjoyning together with their High Court of Chancery Courts of Justice and Exchequer the receipt of their once great and largely extended revenue attending therein help and succour of the Royal Houshold and Hospitality and those Crums of Comfort Meat and Drink and Provisions not used fragments broken meat offall and wast of the Wine and Food which dayly came from the many plentifully furnish'd Tables and expence of Victuals of the Kings house Servants and retinue Fed and Nourrished many of her Families by which and many Priviledges granted unto her by our Kings is now from a shrub come to be as one of the Cedars of our Lebanon and augmented and encreased from a few scattered Cottages Sheds Booths and Tents about the Abby and the Kings house and Palace to a Village from a Village to a Town and from a Town to a City with a Pomerium Fauzburgs or Suburbs so large as it stretcheth it self from Tutlefields in a continued Building and Streets to Temple-Barre and the Inns of Court and in many other places is so contiguously joyned to London as it makes her self to be as it were her younger sister And must she not blush at the same time that any of her Inhabitants should Exercise or be guilty of so foul an Ingratitude as to Arrest without Licence any of the Servants of the King whose Royal Progenitors and Predecessors have nursed and brought her to that perfection And hath London like the Members of the body natural found herself as to her retayling Trade to be the better when it was nearer to the head and heart and did therefore so follow the warmth and hopes of Gain and increase of Trade and Imployment thereby as she hath swelled her Suburbs bigger than her self As although her Forreign Trade is brought unto her from the Sea and Eastward yet she hath immensly built her self as the ingenious Mr. Grant one of her Citizens hath of late observed Westwards to be as near as she could unto her Kings Palace and his Courts of Justice which not only daily receiveth the feet of many of the people of the Nation but of Strangers coming as far as ever the Sheban Queen did to Solomon Can any of her Citizens be so stupid or ingratefully ignorant as not to understand that that great City and the Commerce and Gain thereof which is now so highly valued by them is and hath been by the Neighbour residence of our Kings and Princes and their Courts of Justice so greatly as it appears to be enlarged and multiplied in their Inhabitants Riches variety and Excellency of her Artificers Magnificence State and Beauty of her Churches and Buildings And hath so much extended her Trade and Merchandise both by Land and Sea through all the Circuite and Travails of the Sun and to the utmost parts of the Earth as her multitude of Ships at Sea and a floating Forrest as it were of them daily or weekly going out and returning home upon the River of Thames hath made her one of the greatest Emporiums in the World and Glorious in the midst of many Waters in so much as she hath by her strength and Honour at Sea and her Might and Interest at Land Hang'd the Shield and Helmet in her set forth her Comelines and made her self not only the Mistress of the Trade of our Isles at home but of our many growing rich Plantations in America And can that City of London the magazine of Mechanick Arts and multitudes of People as it is at this day and taketh her self to be not a little honoured by being called the Emperial Chamber of our Kings of England Have so little acquaintance with the Dictates of reason and gratitude or a care of their own Interest as to forget the Founders and Cause of that their Plenty and Happiness and upon every little occasion of a Debt or money owing them to Worry take by the Throte Arrest and Imprison any of the Kings Servants with the Pay me what thou owest me when more than half of it and much of it unjustly was gained of the Debtor and at the same time refuse to pay unto the King the Master of that Servant the debt of Gratitude Duty Honour Reverence good Manners and Civility which they owed unto him either of which would have shewed them the way to complain unto him of such and indebted or ill dealing Servant and Petition for his leave or Licence to Arrest or out-law him before they do it When they that do so much and undutifully undervalue his Courts Servants and Royal residence and Neighbourhood may be assured by the Annalls and Histories of England that their Predecessors in the Reign of King Richard the 2d when their Forreign and home Trade was not the Tenth of what it is now as the small Revenue of the Customs in the latter end of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth will manifest when the highest improvement of her Care and Carmardens discovery could bring her Customs and Profits by Merchandise but to 50000 l. per annum were so sensible of that Kings removal of his Court from London displeasure and Indignation heightned by a Riot committed upon the Servants and house of the Bishop of Salisbury Lord Treasurer for that one of the Bishops Servants had taken a horse loafe out of a Bakers Basket as he passed along the Streets for which notwithstanding the Mayor and Aldermen had appeased the Tumult the Liberties of the City were seised into the Kings hands the Mayor Committed to the Castle of Windsor and the Aldermen and some other substantial Citizens to other Castles a Warden appointed to Governe the City as they deemed themselves in a lost and ruining Condition untill by the special Suit of the Duke of Gloucester they had procured the King upon the Payment of Ten thousand pounds and many rich gifts presented to him and the Queen to return to London where with great joy they
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 proâ—ervation 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 Servanâ—s 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
Immediately send word to the Lord Mayor thereof and the cause why he is so punished from which the Lord Mayor may not release him but by the Chamberlains assent And shall it not be lawfull for the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings most Honourable Houshold by and under the Kings Supreme Authority to Imprison or punish any who in Contempt of Soveraignty and Majesty shall without licence first procured Arrest any of his Servants For certainly it is and should be the Interest of the people of England not to deny so great a principle of Nature and so clear a part of the Reason of all Mankind or to give unto Caesar that which so justly belongeth unto him by the Laws of God Nature Nations Laws of England Custom and prescription Right of Superiority Oaths of Allegiance and supremacy Et quod ubique quod semper ad omnibus and which every where always and of all men except by our late rude and levelling part of the people have neither been repined at or maligned And it will not be for the Interest of the people of England to oppose their Prejudices Fancies Humours and Opiniastretés to the Rights of the King and his Servants but it is and will be the Interest of the King to preserve the Rights of Majesty Superiority and just means of Government and to punish the violaters and Contemners thereof and the Interest of all his good people to wish and desire it FINIS a Gutherius de Offic. domus August lib. 1. ca. 1 b Deut 4.32 c Job 8. v. 8 9. d Jer. 6. v. 16. e Craigius de repub Lacedaemon lib. 2. ca. 2. f Livius lib. 9.349 350. g Petit. Parl. 46 E. 3. a Esther c. 4. ver 11. b Esther c. 4 ver 2. c Xiphilinus in Nerone Grâ—gor Tholosan in Syntagmate Juris 378. d Cujacius Comment ad lib. 11. Cod. Justin tit 77. e Goldastus Constit. Imperialibus Tâ—m 3. 4 8â— â—ect 166 tit de Cura Palâ—tu 15. f L. L. Alamannorum in Lindenbrogio tit 29. g L. L. Bai variorum in Lindenbrogio tit 11. h L. L. Longobard in Lindenbrogio lib. 1. tit 2. de Scâ—ndalis i Charta Câ—nfiâ—mâ—tiâ—nis Regis Witlafâ—â— Monâ—sterii de Croyland Dugdale Monasâ—icon Anglicanum â—65 166. Spelman Concilia Decretâ—â—leges Ecclesiastic 337. k L. L. Aluredi cap. 31. l Annales Wintoniensis Ecclesiae M.S. in Biblotheca Cottoniana sub Effigie Domitiani in A. 13. Et vide Asser Menevensis m L.L. Edmondi cap. 75 76. n Leges Ecclesiast Hoell Dha in Spelmanni Decret Constitut. Ecclesi 409. o Leges Ecclesiast Hoelâ— Dha Regis Walliae in Spelmanni Decret leg Ecclesiastic 408 412. p L.L. Caâ—uti cap. 56. q Charta Henrici primi Monasterio de Hide Dugdales Monasticon Anglicanum 211 212. r L.L. Henrici primi per Cl. Seldenum in Lucem emiss cap. 16. Fleta lib. 2. cap. 2. Cokes 10. relat en le case de'l Marchalsea s Placit Parliamenti 18. E 1. n. 4. Ryleyes plâ—c Parl. 6.7 Pryns Aurum Reginae 28. t Cokes 3. part Institut tit misprision 141. Placita coram Dâ—mino Rege in Parl. apud Westm ' in praesentia Regis Anno 21. E. 1. u Pascha 8 E. 2. coram Rege rot 28. Norff. w Cokes 3 par Institut 141. x Selden mare clausum cap. 22 26. y Fleta lib. 2. cap. 3. z Mich. 12 E. 3. Coram Rege Rot. 101 Cant. a 27 Assis. pl. 49. b 33 H. 8. ca. 12. c Rotul parl 21 Jac. Cokes 3 part institut 148. d Concil Meldense ca. 26. Spelman Glossar in voce Epis. copium e Cokes 3 parte institut tit misprision f Purchas Pligrimage 2 part voyage of Francis Alvareza Portugal 1053. Ibid. 1071 1083. Ibid. 1107. g Voyage Francis Pyzard de la val 2 part Purchas Pilgrimage 1648 1663 1664. h Mr. John Davis relation of his voyage to the East Indies 1 par of Purchas Pilgrimage 132. i Paulus Venetus in 3 pâ—rt of Purchas Pilgrimage 66. k 3 parl Purchas Pilgrimage 88. l Relation of Galeota Perera in 3 part of Purchas Pilgrimage 2â—5 m Ricius Trigantius in 3 part of Purchase Pilgrimage 392 353. n 3 part Purchas Pilgrimage 1139. o Genes 13. v. 7 8. p Exod. 20. q Gadd us in Comment ad l. 19 5. nu 2. 4. ad Sect 4. de verborum significatione L. Aedi les 25. r Sect. 2.3.6 Institut de Injur Besoldus in Dissert Juri Politic. 48. s L.L. Inae cap. 18. L. L. Aethelstani 60 u L.L. Alemanorum in Lindenbrogio Tit. 29. w L.L. Longobard in Lindenbrogio lib. 2. Tit. 4. x Lindenbrogius lib. 4. inter Capiâ—l Caroli y Cujacius Comment ad lib. 12. Cod. Justiniani 1635 Marculfi formulae z L L. Wisigoth in Lindenbrogio lib. 2. Tit. 4. a Vide Register of Writs Tit. Protect b 9 H. 3. c. 11 c Register of Writs 19. Tit. Warrantia diâ—i d Coke 4. Instit. 53. Lib. 5. D. de offic ad sess Spartianus in Hadrian Gutherius de offic Domus August lib. 1 cap. 17. e Coke 3. Rep. Sir William Herberts Case f Register of Writs 281. g 25 E. 3. cap. 19. Rot. Par. 8 H. 6. m. 10. h 34 35. C. H. 8. c. 13. i Reformatio legum Ecclesiasticarum Impâ—ess 1571. k Placita Aulae 33. E. 1. 20. E. 3. d Jer. 6 v. 16 e Gen. 41. v. 40 41 4â— f 2 Sam. 11. vers 11. 2 Sam. 10. vers 2 4 5. 2 Reg. cap. 5. v. 13.6 7. g Prov. 22. vers 29. h Jer. 38. cap. 41. i Besoldus in opere Politico cap. 3. k Nehem. 7. vers 57. l Esâ—her c. 1. v. 1. c 6 v. 6 7 8 9. c. 7. v. 15. m Esther c. 1. v. 14. Ezrâ— c. 7. vers 15. n Matt. 11 vers 8. o Edict Theodosii l. 4. Cod. p Vlpian 1. leg Julia 7. ad leg Jul. de vi pub l. 46. Pâ—tit 6. q Pancirollus in Notitia utriusque Imper. r Pancirollus in Notitia utriusq Imper. cap. 51. s Ibid. ca. 66. t Ibid. ca. 89. u Dion l. 60. w Pancirol in Notitia utriusque Imperii c. 90 x Cujacius Comment ad l. 10. Cod. Justiniani 1425. y Pancirol in Notitia utriusque Imperii cap. 7 5â— z Cujâ—cius Comment ad l. 10. Cod. Justin. 1425. a Cujacius Comment expositio ad Novel tit 63 c Cujacius ad l 12. Cod. Justin. tit 5. d Lib. 1. C. Praeb Tyr. l. 3. inf de Castrens e Cujacius in Comment ad l. 12. Cod. Justin. 155â— f Cujacius Comment ad l. 10. Cod. Justin. 1545. h Cujacâ—us in Comment ad lib. 12. Cod. Justin. tit 5. i L. fin c. â—bi Senat. vel Clariss Matheas de Judiciis disput 4 num 36. Vizzanius de mandatis Principum cap. 5.162 163. k Cujacius Comment ad lib. 12. God Justin. Tom. 3. tit 16. l Constitutiones
assented unto and granted by the Kâ—ng 26 June 1628. c Vide Collection of Declarations in Parliament d Bignonii notae adi librum Maroulfi de formulis 517. e Fleta lib. 2. cap. 34. d Greg. Tholos Syntagmate Juris lib. 48. cap. 2. Sect. 18. e Plin. secundus lib. 4. Epist urso suo f Alexander ab Alexnndro Gemal dierum lib. 3.25 b. g Hengham magna cap. 6. h 2 Reg. cap. 15. Et Sigonius de Repub. Hebr. lib. 7. cap. 3. cap. 7. i Deut. 4. v. 8. 25. v. 1 2. k Luke 12. v 38. Oldendorpius de Action Solemnitatibus aequissimum in permiss de usu fruct m Alexand. ah Alexandro Geâ—nal dierum lib. 1. cap. 15 n Brissonius de formulis lib. 3.280 281 282 283 288. o Bignonii notae ad librum 1. Marculfi formul 520. in lib. 1. Marculfi formul cap. 37. passim in eodem libro p Choppinus de de domanio Franciae lib. 3. tit 2.523 524. Tit. in feud de Vassal qui contra const Lothar regis benif aliea l. generaliter 13. D. L. venia 2. C. H. r L. L. Henrici primi cap. 43. 83. s Cokes 1 part Comment upon Littleton lib. 2. cap. 1. lib. Rub. cap. 55. t Bracton 80. Britton 174. Coke Comment super Littleton lib 1. tit homag u Coke Comment super Littleton tit homag w Vide compleat Copy-holder said to be Written by Sir Edw. Coke x Cokes 4. relat tit Copyhold 146. idem 1. part comment upon Littleton lib. 2. cap. 1. y Claus. 9. H. 3. m. 9. z Spelmans Glossar in voce ligeantia et Custumar vet Norman cap. 43. a Spelman Glossar in voce Hamsocne b Vetus M. S. Monaster de Coxford c LL. Henrici primi cap. 10. d L L. Edwardi Confessoris 21 22 23. e Bracton lib. 3. c. 10. f Lambards Eirenarch 1 lib. c. 12 13. lib. 2. c. 2.88 89. 8 E. 4.14 20 H. 7.13 14 H. 8.18 lib. 1. ca. 3.14 15. Lamberds Eirenaâ—ch lib. 2.84 85. 9 E. 4.3 Lamberts Eirenarchiâ— lib. 1.26.60 61. lib. 1. cap. 12. 13. g Stowes Survey of London h Lambards Eirenarch lib. 2. cap. 3.133 134. tract de office Constabl 16 17. (i) 2 Ass pl. 4. k Calvins Case Coke 7 Report LL. Edwardi Confessor 3.35 (l) 26 H 8. cap. 1.1 Eliz. cap. 1. 5 Eliz. cap. 1. (m) Lord Herberts History of King Henry the 8 th n Vincentius Lupanus lib. 1. tit Magistr hospitii o Jo. Tilii Comment de rebus Gallicis lib. 2.141.150 tit de paribus Galliae p Tilii Commentar de rebus Gallicis lib. 2.183.186 q Johannis Tilii Commentar de rebus Gallicis lib. 2.183 186. Tit de officiis domesticis Regum Reginarum Vincentius Lupanus lib. 1. tit Magistr hospitii r Jo. Tilii Commentar de rebus Gallicis lib 2 183 186 (s) Lovet Recueil d' Aucuns notables Arrests donnez en la Cour de Parlement de Paris cap. 31 t Negotiation du Marescal de Bassompiere en Angleter en l' An. 1626. p. 91 92.153 u Severinus de Monzombono de statu Imperii Germanici cap. 5 6 9.14 21. x Dalingtons Survey of the great Duke of Tuscanies Estate in the year 1596. y Paul Ricault state of the Ottoman Empire c. 3. z Relation of 3 Embassies of the Earl of Carlile into Moscovy written by G. magie one of his attendants 322. 366 a Samedo relat del China parte 1.20 Hornii orbis Politic. parte 4.71 Sâ—medo part 1. cap. 22.115 b Varenius de regno Japan cap. 7. c Suetonius in Claudio Budaeus Annotat. in Pandect 45. ex libro 47. digest d Cassanâ—â—s â— parte Catalog gloriae mundi â—6 consid per Text ad literam in â—uth â—t ordinariae praesentur e Budaeus Annotat. in Pandect titulo de officio quaestoris f gl est notab in verbo restituuntur Sect. fi F. de Jure Fisci de Procuratoribus g Jason in A Rub. text in l. in sacris 3 Sect. modum Selden 2 part Titles of Honour c. 16. Sect. 2. h Spelman Glossar in voce Armiger 42.43 i Ant. Faber defin 18 num 4. defin num 8. k Flamin de rubes cons. 22. n. 20. Nolden de statu nobil cap. 22. Sect. 1. Cassanaeus catalogo gloriae mundi 8 parte consid 11. l 14 H. 6. tit debte 71. m Asser Menevensis n Tilius Comment de rebus Gallicis lib. 2.173 o Fortescue de laudibus legum Angl. p Fernes glory of Generosity 9. â— q Angâ—l lib. 2. cap. de Officiis r Fernes glory of Generosity 37 43.58 s Fernes glory of Generosity 24. t Cassanaeus 8 parte Catalog gloriae mundi consid 10. u Budaeus in suis Annotationibus in Pandect in l. fi in fi ff de origine Juris Cassanaeus in 8 parte Catalog gloriae mundi 3 consid 1 Sam. ca. 14.3 x Spelmans Glossar in voce Armiger 43. y Spelmans Glossar in voce Armiger 43. z Sir Robert Cotton in tractat variorum de Officio Constabularii Angliae a Selden 549 §. 24. b Cassanaeus catalog gloriae mundi parte 1. concl 52. c Cuiacius ad Comment lib. 12. Cod. Justiniani tit 17. in l. 1. C de Domesticis Protect l. 12. Salmuthius Commentar in Panciroll tit 46. d Cuiacius Commentar lib. 12. Cod. Justiniani tit 9. e Aug. in l. omnium col 1. Tiraquel de nobilitate ca. 6.48 f Plinius ad Spurinam Epist. 5. g Sir John Fernes glory of Generosity 60. h Cassanaeus in Catalog gloriae mundi 1 parte consid 48. Bartolus in l. 1. C. de dignitat lib. 12. i Cassanaeus in Catalog gloriae mundi 1 parte concl 48. k Cassanaeus in 6 parte Catalog gloriae mundi consid 33 38.19 l. 4. C. de dignitatibus l. 12. Tex in l. cum dilectus ibi gl fi l Cassanaeus in 6 parte Catalog gloriae mundi 29 consid m Curialium de praediis in l. f. C. Cassanaeus in 6 parte Catalog gloriae mundi 25 consid n Cassanaeus in Catalog gloriae mundi 6 parte consid 30. o Sir John Finets Philoxenis or Treatise of Ambassadors 2â—6 237. p Suetonius in vita Augusti q 22 Ass. 49.1 r Cokes 3 parte Institute ca. 1.8 s Rot. Parl. 3 R. 2. m. 18 t Lettre du Roy a Messieurs les Estates en le description de tout ce qui se est passe dans le guerres entre Angleterre les Estates c. de l' An. 1664. jusques l' conclusion de pais p. 189. Ambassade du Mareschal de Bassompierre en Suisse l' An. 1625. u l. eum qui 18. v. 1. de injur P. L. itâ—m apud Lambeonem 15. §. Et interdum eod x L. Empereur de Legibus Ebraeorum forensibus Annotat. Cod. cap. 9. § 2. y Fleta lib. 2. cap. 1. z Stows Survey of London
and the History of Wat Tyler a Statutes or Orders of Eltham made An. 17 33 H. 8. b 3 4 E. 6 ca. 1. c Vide Oath of the Judges in 18 E. 3. d M. S. of his argument against the Ship-money e M. S. of Henry Earl of Arundel f Mat. Paris 208. g Assisa Panis Cervitiae 51 H. 3. h 9 H. 3. cap. 12. i 6 E. 1. ca. 15 k 13 E. 1. ca. 42. l Cokes 1 parte Institutes § 102. m Lib. Rub. in Scac. f. 30 Spelmanni Glossar in voce Marescalli Fleta lib. 2 cap. 7. n Elsings Modus tenendi Parliamentum 24. o Statute of Lincoln 9 E. 2. 14 E. 3. ca. 7.34 H. 8 ca. 26. p Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts tit Chancery Elsings Modus tenendi Paâ—liamentum q 46 E. 3. n. 43. r 9 H. 6. ca. 6. s 14 E. 3. ca. 7. t 14. E. 3. ca. 5. 14 E. 3. 20 E. 3. ca. 6. u 31 E. 3. ca. 3â— x 37 E. 3. ca. 18. 38 E. 3. ca. 9. y 11 R. 2. ca. 11. z 13 R. 2. ca. 1. a 20 R. 2 ca. 1. b 1 2 H. 4. ca. 21. c 1 H. 6. ca. 1. d 10 H. 6. ca. 3. e 11 H. 6. ca. 8. f 3 H. 7. ca. 1. g 11 H. 7. ca. 25. h 19 H. 7. ca. 6. i 1 H. 8. c. 9. k 14 15 H. 8. c. 2. l 21 H. 8. ca. 13. m Cap. 16. n 23 H. 8. ca. 5. o Cap. 7. p 25 H. 8. ca. 2. q 25 H. 8. ca. 15. r Cap. 16. s 28 H. 8. ca. 14. t 33 H. 8. ca. 28. u 34 35 H. 8. ca. 7. x 37 H. 8. ca. 12. y Cap. 23. z 7 E. 6. ca. 5. a Cap. 7. b 1 Mar. ca. 5. c 43 Eliz. ca. 4. d Rot. Pat. 29 E. 3. m. 27. e Register of Writs tit Protection 22.23.26 f Albericus Gentilis de legationibus lib. 2. ca. 15. of the Kings Servants g Elsing in his book of the antient and present manner of holding Parliaments h Broke 6.24.29 Fitz-Herbert N. B. 42. Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts Dyer 287.42 Coke 4 th part Institutes 227. i Crompton Jurisdiction of Courts tit Parl. k Rastals vet lib. intruc tit cerciorar sur brev de priviledge 8. l Ibidem tit Privil 9.440 m Register of Writs 121. tit de inquirend de transgressione n Job 9. v. 1. o Nehemiah c. 1. v. 2. 3. c. 2. v. 2. 6. p Brook tit Vtlary 62. 3 H. 4.10 q Bracton lib. â— ca. 11.125 Stamford Plees del Corone lib. 3. ca. 35. r Peregrini Janninii de Citatione reali lib. 2. s 50 E. 3. c. 5. 1 R. 2. c. 15. t Bracton lib. 3. c. 12.8 u Norff. Termino Paschae An. 6 H. 4. Rot. 34. coram Rege w Brooke Tit. Vtlary 10. 9 H. 4.3 x Brooke ibidem 47. 2 E. 4.1 y Brooke Tit. Vtlary 79. 11 H. 7.5 z 20 H. 3. ca. 10.13 E. 1. ca. 10. a 7 R. 2. ca. 14. b Brooke Tit. Vtlary 75. Fitzherberts Abridgement Tit. Challenge 153. c 4 H. 5. (d) Bracton lib. 3. ca. 14.1 (e) Fleta lib. 1. ca. 28 (f) Bracton lib. 3. de Corona ca. 11. g Bracton Tract 2. lib. 5. de Essoniis cap. 1. g Bracton Tract 2. lib. 5. de Essoniis cap. 1. (h) Plowdens Commentaries in Willon and the Lord Berklyes case 238. b. 248. a. (i) Vlpian l. 1. 1. Si is qui testam l. 1 â— ubi causa Stat. novell k Vide the Oaths of the Kings Servants in the Raign of Henry the 8 th in a Book entituled the Book of Oaths l Hill 14 H. 6. Rot. 1. m Bracton lib. 5. de Exceptionibus ca. 17. Tract 5. n Register of Writs 185 191. o Rot. Clausis 7 H. 3. m. 6. p Rot. Vascon 36 37 38 39 H. 3. in Mr. Prynnes Annotations and amendments of and apon the 4 th part of Sir Edward Cokes Institutes 320 321. p Rot. Vascon 36 37 38 39 H. 3. in Mr. Prynnes Annotations and amendments of and apon the 4 th part of Sir Edward Cokes Institutes 320 321. q Wasthulls case in Banco Regis Sharingtons in Hill 23 Eliz Allensons case 3 Car. 1. Comes Oxon. contra Johannem Harbert in An. 1657 r Bracton lib. 5.135 s Rot. Par. 15. R. 2. m. 18. t Petitiones Parl. 39 H. 6. n. 9. u Dier Pasch. 28 29 H. 8. Sect. 18 w Bracton lib. 5. de Exceptionibus Tract 5. ca. 2. 7. ca. 2. 16. Sect. 2. x Ex Doctr. Barchol in l. 1. super de judict Bald. in l. si convenerit 2. lect de Juredict cum Jud. l sicut 〈◊〉 de act oblig Register of Writs 19. a. b Rot. Pat. 18 E. 3. Part. 2 m. 31. Intus c Rot. Pat. 26 E. 3. m. in Dorso d In veteri libro Intrat tit Exigent 216 Sect. 8. e Pascha 7 H. 8. rot 66. f 38 H. 6.23 Rolls Reports tit Protection g 19 H. 6.48 Et Rolls Reports tit Protection h Br. tit Priviledge 10 E. 4 4. Br. tit Vtlary 4 H. 4. 4 H. 5.75 77.1 H. 7.68 Br. 5 E. 4. tit offic del Court i 10 E 4.4 Brook tit priviledg 40. k In veteri libro intras tit Error Trin. 5 H. 8. rot 3. l Innovo libro Intras tit Error m Moyles entries 83. Mich. 9 Jac. Regis rot 705. n Register of Writs 220. o Ibid. 262. p Bart. l. cum furiosus F. de Jud. d Coke 9. relat Sir George Reynells Case Vide Book of Oathes r Mich. 34 E. 1. incipien rot 1â—3 coram Rege Consilio videlicet in Banco Regis s Register of Writs 7 15 23 34 b. 36. b. 37 39 b. t 13 E. 1. ea 24. u Coke 3 parte Institutes 223 ro Pat. 24 E. 3. part 3. m. 24. in Dorso x 18 E. y. 20 E. 3 ca. 1. y 20 E. ca. 1. z Andersons Reports sect 201. in Cavendishes case Cokes 3 parte Instâ—stutes ca. 54. tit Praemisnire a 3 4 Eliz. 22. b Dier Mich. 34 Eliz. 25 Jenkins Reports of Cases referred to all the Judges Ayres contoa Allanson in 3 Car. 1. ubique inter legum Authores Samuel Daniel History of England c Brook tit Offiice del Court 25 H. 25 28. d Register of Writs 8 220 Ibidem 170 172. Register of Writs 217 b. 229 b. e Register of Writs 169 170. f Ibidem 4. g Register of Writs 221 b. h 9 E. 1 placit de Jur. Assise coram Solamone de Roff. sociis suis Justic. Itinerant rot 15 i Register of â—riâ—s 59. (k) Cromptous Jurisdiction of Courts 12 Dyer 315. l Elsings modus tenendi Parlamentum m 3 E. 1. cap. 15. n Mich. 33 34 E. 1. rot 103. in Banco Regis o Dugdales 1 2 parte Monasticon Anglicanum p Dier 4 Eliz. 33. q 28 H. 8. ca. 15. r Sir Isaack
H. 6. tit quarâ— impedit t Mich. 2 E. 4.9 u w Trin. 11 E. 4.12 x Hill 21 E. 4.26 y Hill 21 E. 4 35. z Pasch. 21 E. 4 6. a 〈…〉 5. P. M. b Dyer Trin. 4 5 P. M. c Dyer ibidem d 11 H. 4.15 Cuiacius ad lib. 10 12. Justiniani Commentar Gutherius de offic domus Augustae lib. 2. cap. 19. The Dukes e Spelmans Glossaâ— in voce Dux f Selden tit honor cap. 4. §. 2. g Scholiâ— Jacobi Spâ—egel in lib. 2. Ligurini Guntheri Poetae 301 302. Marquesses h Hornius in orbe Politis 3 part 81. i Selden tit honor cap. 1. §. 47. Rot. Parl. 4 H 4. m. â—8 Earls k Selden 2. part tit honor cap. 3. §. 5. cap. 5. §. 3. l Spelman Glossâ—r in Diatribâ—â—â— Comitâ—bus m Vizzâ—â—ius de 〈◊〉 Princiâ—um l â—â— 24. n 〈◊〉 in Glossâ—r Salis vâ—â—um 〈◊〉 voâ—e Centenarius o Cluverius de Germ lib. 1. cap. 15. p Choppinus de domanio Franciae lib. 1.44 q Alexander ab Alexand. Genial dierum lib. 9. cap. 9. r Gutherius del officiis domus Augustae lib. 1. cap. 17. lib. 2 cap. 21. s Idem lib. 2. cap. 19. t Charles Loyseau traite des Seigneuries cap. 5.27.102 u Besoldus in dissertatione de Comitibus Imperii 99. w L'Oysean traite des Seigneuries ibidem x Pancirollus in notitia utriusque Imperii Spelmanâ— Glossar in voce Comitis Selden tit honor 2. part cap. 1. §. 8. y Cuiacius Commentar ad lib. 12. Cod. tit 5. Justiniani Chiffletius ad vindicias Hispanicas lumina prerogat luminâ— 3 §. 5. z Huberti Leodii Commentar de Palatinorum origine a Egnihartus de vita gest Caroli Magni b Pasquier des Recherches de la France lib. 2. cap. 12. c Freherus originum Palatinorum comment cap. 1. d Paulus de Fageâ— in vita Petri de Marca Padriensis Archiepiscopi e Hinckmarus cap. 14. 15. Epist. 4. Choppinus de domanio Franciae lib. 1.45 f Spelmans consil 347. Spelmans coâ—sil â—47 g Seldens titles of honour cap. 5. § 15. Spelman Glossâ—r in voce Comitis h Jer. 36. â—ers 12. i Esther cap. 1. vers 3 4 13 14. k Besoldus in dissertatione de Comitibus Rom. Imperii Selden in Jano Anglorum ejusdem tit hon 2. part cap. 5 § 3 l Selden 2. part tit hon 651 lib Rub. in Scacc. f. 26. inter lâ—ges H. â— m Spelman Glossar in Catalog capâ—tal Justitiar Angl. n Selden tit hon 2. part §. 8. Bracton lib. 1. cap 8. o Hoveden Selden 2. part tit hon cap. 5 § 13. p Placita de Jur. assis coram Solomone de Roffe al. Justic. domini Regis Itin. apud Norwicum in Com. Norff anno 14. Regis Edw. 2. rot 2. q Selden 2. part tit hon cap. 5. §. 10. r Rot. Parl. Johan part 1. m. 4. Rot. Parl. 2 H. 3. m. 3. Rot. Claus Fines 5 E. 3. s Embassades de Marescal de Bassompierre t Seldeâ—â— 2. pâ—rt tit â—on cap. 5. §. 10. u Spelman â—lossâ—r in vocibus Constabular Marescal 14â— 147 399.4â—1.402.403 46 E. 3. Escâ—â—t w Dâ—gdales 1. part Monasticon Anglicanum x Rot. Parl. 33 H. 6. y Rot Claâ—s 3 E. â— 10 z Marquardus Freherus de Orig Palatin de Aurea Bulla ca. 25. ex Archivit Illustrissimi Principis Electoris Palatini Selden tit hon 2. part cap. 1. §. 54. a Actus Electionis Coronationis Mathiae Imperatoris an 1612. Hornii orbis politic in 8 part 2.23 Viscounts b Selden tit hon 2. part cap. 3. § 19. 20. 1 Part Dugdales Monasticon Anglican 380. ibid. Carta H. 3.382 Abbati Monachis de Salopesbury c Carta Gulielmi Rufi in Dugdales Monasticon Rot. Pat. 18 H. 6. part 2. m. 21. d Spelmans Glossâ—r in Catalog Capital Justic. Angl. 340. Barons Temporal e Spelman Glossar in voce Baro. f Bracton lib. 1. ca. 8. Selden 2. part tit hon cap. 5. § 15. g Spelman Glossar in voce Baro. h Relation de la conspiration de valstein i Joh. Gower confessio Amantis Selden tit hon 2. part ca. 5. § 16. k Dugdales 1. part Monastic Anglic 384. l Mich. 18 E. 1. in Baâ—co Regis Norff. Rot. 46. Mich. 33 34 Et coram Rege Rot. 75. m Selden tit hon 2. part cap. ◠§ 2. 4. n Spelman Glossar in voce Baro. o Selden tit hon 689.2 part cap. 5. Sect. 16. p Spelman Glossar in voce Baro. q Scholia Jacobi Spiegel in lib. 2. Ligurini Guntheri 301 302. r Spelman Glossar in voce Baro in vocibus Pares Parliament s 31 H. 8. cap. 10. t Spelman Glossar in voce Baro. Barons Spiritual u Selden tit honor 795. paâ—t 2. cap. 5. Sect. â—0 w Traitte du politicque de France par Monâ—sieur P. H. Marquis de C. in fine x Spelman Glossar in voce Apocrisiarius in voce Comes Palatinus y Mat. Parker antiquitâ—tes Ecclesâ—◠〈…〉 28. z History of the life of Will Laâ—d Arch-bishâ—p of Canterbury 2â—9 a Ro. cart 1 Johannis in 29. b Cokes 2. part Institutes 625. c Lord Herberts History of King Henry the 8th 376. d Statutes or Orders made at Eltham Anno 17. H. 8. 33 H. 8 caâ— 10. f 〈…〉 in 4. 〈…〉 ad lib. 12 God Justinian 1 〈◊〉 11. Seâ—â—ion 1. p. tit 〈◊〉 ca. 3. Sect. â— in 〈◊〉 g 〈…〉 Imperii 〈…〉 14.84 h 〈…〉 Cokes â— Rep i k Statute of 〈…〉 or 〈…〉 â—â— H. 3. c. 10. l Flet lib. 6. ca. 9. m Eliz. c. 1. n 1 Eâ—iz c. 2. o Memoires du duc du Guise p 21. H. 8. ca 13. q Coke 3. part of the Institutes ca 56. tit approver r 9 H. 3 ca. 11. Hil. 20. E. 1 coram Rege Wallia Rot. 37. s 14. Eliz. Gromwell's case Dyer 316. t Magna Charta 29. 20 H 6 c. 9. 10 E. 4 6. 20 H. 6. c. 9. u Lambard Eirenarch 81. w 27 E. 3. 27 H. 8.27 x Crompton Jurisdiction of Courts 1 H. 4.1 Stamford 152. y 21 E. 3 39. 43 E. 3.33 8 R. 2. 7 H. 4. 11 H. 4.15 1 H. 5.14 14 H. 6.2 22 H. 6.226 27 H. 8.27 Countee de Salops case Cokes 9. Report 49. z Countess of Rutlands case Cokes 6 Reports 52. 53. 3. H. 6 48. a Vernons considerations for regulating of the court of Exchequer 18. b Nevills case Cokes 7. Rep. 34. Dier 20 Eliz 360 Coke 2 part Instit. cap 2. c 13 E. 3. Dier 107 Crompton Jurisdiction des courts d Selden tit honor 704. 2 part ca. 5. § 20. Coke comment super Littleton 58. e Dugdale 1 part Monasticon Anglic f Seldeni dissertatio ad Fletam ca. 4. § 3. ca. 5. § 1. 3. h Selden tit hâ—nor 573. part 2. ca. 4. Sect. 4 i Register of Writs 100. b. k Selden 2 part tit honor
637. ca 5. §. 7. ro liberat 2. Regis Johanis in 3. l Selden tit honor 651 652. 2 part ca. 5. Sect. 10. m Pat. 5. E. 6 in 4. Selden tit honor 664. 2 part ea 5 Sect 10 n Rot. Part hincu 29. H 6. o Lord Herberts History of King Henry the eighth 418. p Rushworths Historical Collections 237. a Sigonius de repub Hebraeorum ca. 5. 6. Menochius de repub Hebraeorum lib. 1. ca. 6. Sect. 8. Jos. 29.51 2 Sam. 23.23 1. Reg. 8.1.3 2 Reg. c. 2. 2 Reg. 1.5.9.11 1 Paralip ca. b 1 Reg. 4.2 c 2 Reg. 7. v. 2. 17. d Mat. 19.28 e Sigonius de repub Atheniensium lib. 1. ca. 2. 4. l. 2. c. 5. f Coke 1. part Institutes vel comment sup Littleton tit Knight service Sect. 107. 108 g Valentius Fostevus in Hist. Juris Civilis Rom. lib. 3. ca. 12.480 h Nolden de Sâ—atu nobilium civili ca. 15 Sect. 5. 7. Cuiacius comâ—ment ad lib. 12. Cod Justiniani tit 1. d. l. 2. Cod. nemo privatus i Nolden de Statu nobilium Civili Synopsis Bract. ca. 1â— Sect. 2.3.5 k Gratian tom 2 discept for ca. 284. Cassaenaeus in Catalog gloriae mundi Fr. Marci deors Delph 806. n 11. tom 1. l Bonfin lib. 7 Chronic. Hungar. 4 Schrader cons. 3. n 197. vol. 1. m Nolden de Statu Nobilium Civili ca. 13.297 n Nolden Synoptis tractat de Statu nobilium civili ca. 13. Sect. 6. idem 304. Sect 11. ca. 15. Sect. 2. p Nolden de Statu nobilium Civili ca 5. Sect. 1. o Cuiacius comment ad lib. 12. Cod. justinian tit 1. q Alberis Ruland de Commissor part 1. l. 5. ca. 6 n. 15. Menoch cons. 902. n. 30. Nolden de statu Nobil civili ca. 5.79 r Cujacius ad l. 12. Cod. Justiniani tit 18. Petrus Granetius de stylo regie Gallorum Juridict olim Salucianis prescripto 321. Sect. 365. 366. s Petrus Granetius de stilo rigio Gallorum 359. §. 440. 441. t Ibid. 338. sect 437. u 3 part Purchas Pilgrimage 185 187. w 3 part Purchas Pilgrimage 1019.1663 x Le Sieur Villault Voyage to Guinee in Annis 1666 1667.251 252. y Elâ—ings antient present manner of holding Parliaments England z Dugdales Origines Juridicial .13 18. a Vid. Prynns Register of Parliament Writs b Vide Prynns Register of Parliament Writs c Rot. claus 8 E. 2 m 22. 33. in dorso d Prynns Animadversions upon Cokes 4 part of the Institutes and additional Appendix 332. e Rot. Parl. 5 H. 4. m. 7. f Aurea Bulla in Archiv Electoris Palatini edit per Marquardum Freherum ca. 1. 12. g Loveâ— recueil d' Aucums notable arrests en le Parlement de Paris ca. 31. h 5 H. 4 rot Parl m 78. i Elâ—ings antient and modern holding of Parliaments 150 k Trin. 7. H. 4. coram Rege rot 69. l 8. H. 6. rot parl m. 57. m 8 H. 6. ca. 1. n Rot. parl 23 24. H. 6. m. 40. o Rot. parl 28. H. 6. m. 56. p Rot. parl 14. 15. E. 4. m. 54. q Rot. parl 17. E. 4. m. 35. r Elsings antient and present manner of holding of Parliaments in England 199 200. 201. s Journal of the House of Commons in Parliament 27. Eliz. t Pryns Animadversions upon Cokes 4 th part Institutes u Rushworths Historical Collections 52 w Pasch. 10. E. 3. Lincoln Rot. 59. x North. assize 3. E 3 Rot. 7. y 25 E. 3. ca. 2. z Pasch. 10. E. 3. coram Rege Trin. 19. E. 3. Hill 20. E. 3. coram Rege Rot. 160. a Forma brevis de privileg officiar ' et clericorum Scaccarii domini Regis nunc usitat ' sub magno Sigillo Scaccaria vide librum ingrum dicti Scaccarii b In l fin cum suis de re milit l. b. 12. C. tit 36. Gregorius Tholosanus lib. 17. ca. 13.1 2. c Juvenal Satir. 16. Cinque Ports d Coke 4. part of the Institutes ca. 42. e Hill 18. E. 1. Antient Demesne f Cokes 4 th part Institutes ca. 58. g LL Guliel Conquestor h Cokes 4 th part Institutes ca. 45. i Selden 2. part tit honor ca. 5. §. 37. k Jer. ca. 5â— v. 15. 16. l Renatus Choppinus de privilegiis Rusticorum lib 1. ca. 7. m Coke sur Littleton Sect. 281. n Charta H. 1 Bracton l. 5. de Exceptionibus ca. 14. vide more at large the Liberties of London Rot. Pat. 1 E 3. Trin 3 E. 3. coram Rege Rot. 113. o Bracton lib. 5. de Exceptionibus ca. 14. Pasch. 18 E. 2. coram Rege Rot. 88. Trin. 2 H. 4. coram Rege Rot. 13. Sr. Isaac Wakes Rex â—latonicus q 13 Eliz. r Rot Parl. 5 R. 2. M. 51 58 59. 8 R. â— M. 11. s Coke Comment upon Littleton lib. 3. cap. 12. Sect. 281. t L. Suus quoque puto F. de haer instit L. si maâ—or de legit u 2 E. 3. coram Rege Rot. 220. v 2. E. 3. coram Rege Rot. 120. w Crokes 1. part Reports Hilar. 9. Car. primi x Customs and Usages of the City of London y Stamfords Pleas of the Crown lib. 2. cap. 41. z Cokes 1. Part Instit. cap. 15.633 Register of Writs 100 b. 147 b. a Gervasius Tilburien M S. in recept Senecar Selden 2. Part Titles of Honor cap. 5. Sir William Herberts Case Cokes third Reports b Dugdales 1 2 Tom. Monasticon Anglie c 27 E. 3. cap. 188. 16. d Hil 1 E. 1. coram Rege e 6 Jac. in Com. Banco f Dugdales 1 2 Tom. Monasticon Anglie in 2 Tom. Sect. 12. g Ro. Parl. 21 E. 3. m 17. 36. h Exodus ca. 16. v. 13 14. i Baldus ad l. Human. de legibus D. D. k Blount's Nomo Lexicon l Coke's 12 Reports Mich. 5 Jacobi m A. Blackvodaeus in Dialogo adversus Geo. Buchanan 281 283. n Ibid. 286 287. o Ibid. 282. o Ibid. 28â— p Genes 7. v. 13. q Exod. 18. v. 14 15 21 22. Num. c. 36. r 1 2 li. Reg. Paralipom Ezra ca. 9. 10. Nehem. cap. 5. 13. v. 25. s LL. Canuti ca. 16. t LL. Gulielmi Conquest ca. 5â— Seldem Spicâ—lleg ad Eadmeri Hist. u Eadmeri Hist. lib. 9. Seldeni ad Eadmerum notae Spicilegium 198 199 w Eadmeri Hist. lib. 2.37 x Spelman Glossar in vocibus Curia Curtis y Claus. 20 H. 3. in dorso m. 14. z LL. Guliâ—lm Conquestoris apud Seldenum in Spicileg ad Eadmerum Sect. 20. a Glanvile de legibus Angliae a Eadmer Hist. lib. 2 38 39 40. b Selden 2 Part Titles of Honor cap. 5. sect 20. c Selden 2 part Titles of Honor cap. 5. sect 20. Hoveden de Anno 1204. d Stowe's Survey of London in 4 to 35. tit Prescription e Ibidem 145.
be taken into custody as hath been before mentioned for a contrivance not to trouble himself to ask leave to arrest Henry Hodsell one of the Kings Servants by suing him to the Utlary endeavouring by that artifice way of rigor extremity to do what he pleased with his Goods Estate without arresting his person or infringing of that part of his Priviledg which being a Correlate to the King becomes to be his concernment as wel as a concernment of any of his Servants which shal be arrested or imprisoned without leave or licence first as aforesaid to be demanded for it is the K. Priviledge and a part of his Regality Honour that his Servants should not be arrested or taken from his Service without a licence first procured And it was therefore no indigested or unwarranted opinion of Bracton when putting the Case where a Laick hath consented to a Tryal before a Judge Ecclesiastical or in foro vetito in a Court where he should not of matters quae pertinent ad Coronam dignitatem Regiam which appertained to the Kings Crown and Dignity he concludeth That poterit enim quis renuntiare iis quae pro se introducta sunt sed tamen non in praejudicium aliorum sicut in praejudicium Regiae Dignitatis quia injuste non trahitur ad alienum forum ex quo renuntiando privilegio suo hoc voluit injuste tamen propter privilegium Regis That any man may renounce those things which were granted in his favour but not to the prejudice of another because he cannot be said to have been unjustly drawn to appear in another Court or Jurisdiction when he did waive or forsake his own priviledge yet he did it unjustly in regard of the Kings Priviledge Et imponi non potest necessitas Regi quod suam Jurisdictionem amittet and the King is not to be necessitated or imposed upon to loose his Jurisdiction which will appear to be consonant to the wisdome of many other Nations the rule of the Civil Law being that a Priviledge cannot be renounced or disclaimed in praejudicium reservantis sibi Jus in Privilegio to the prejudice of him that reserved a right in that priviledge videtur enim inter partes ultro Citroque obligatio contracta quo fit ut unus consensu tantum distrahi non potest for there is such an Obligation or contract betwixt the parties on both sides as with the consent only of one of the parties it cannot be discharged sucâ— deceitful Contrivances to defeat the King of his Regalities and Priviledges and bereave him of the attendance of his Servants by arresting and imprisoning them whether he will or no and if they cannot do it one way to compasse and do it by another upon an impulse only of some over fierce malitious or uncivil Creditors or Complanants will or haughty humor to prejudice or abstruct their Soveraigns affairs or service when they knew a more easie and mannerly way to compasse their pretended rights by petitioning for a leav or licence to take their course at Law against them if in the mean time they were not satisfied and do by so doâ—ng make themselves guilty of a greater contempt and more immediately to the King then any pretended contempts of the Kings Servants in not appearing whilst they are busied in his service to the Writs or Process of his Courts of Justice for which they would arrest or Outlaw them may very well require the care which King Edward the third did take to secure his Servants from damage by their not appearing to any Process or Summons in his Courts of Justice whilst they were in his Service by his Writ under his Great-Seal of England in these words Rex Justitiariis suis de Banco Salutem Sciatis quod A fuit in Servitio nostro per praeceptum nostrum die Lunae in Crastino Quindenae Paschae prox praeterito Ita quod eo die interesse non potuit loquelae quae est coram vobis per breve nostrum inter B petentem praedictum A tenentem de uno Messuagio cum pertinentiis in N unde idem A versus praedictum B inde vocavit ad warrantum c. ut dicitur ideo vobis mandamus quod praedictus A propter absentiam suam ad diem illum non ponatur in defaltam nec aliquo sit perdens quia idem ilâ—um quoad hoc VVarrantizamus c. The King to hâ—s Justices of the Bench or Common-Pleas sendeth greeting Know yee that A was in our service by Our Command upon Munday being the morrow after Quindena Paschae or fifteen dayes after Easter last past So that he could not that day appear in the Action which was depending before you by Our Writ betwixt B Demandant against the aforesaid being Tenant of one Messuage with the appurtenances in N wherein the said A vouched C to warranty against B as is said and therefore we command you that no default be entred against the said A in regard of his absence that day and that he receive no damage therein because we do as to that warrant him which seems to be no Novel Writ or but once or seldome made when the Rule of the Register is that the like Writ may be sent to the Maior and Sheriffs of London the Bishop of Durham within his Liberty of Durham the Justices of Assise or to a Sheriff c. in these words Sciatis quod A fuit in servitio nostro per praeceptum nostrum die Jovis in Octabis Sancti Hillarii die Lunae in Crastino Animarum proximis praeteritis which may seem to be upon some Kings-Bench Writ or Process where they do now use to make them retornable upon certain dayes of a retorn of Writs or if they were upon Writs or Process of the Court of Common-Pleas where the retorns are commonly not upon a certain day of a week these dayes appointed and past might probably be some Courts or Husting dayes upon an Exigent in order to an Vtlary or if not out of either of those Courts upon some day of appearance before some Judges of Assise but out of what Court soever the Writs or Process were issued it appears there were some defaults recorded or entred and were notwithstanding to be superseded or not to be to the prejudice of the Kings Servant or service there being likewise subjoyned a Rule in the Register quod breve de VVarrantia de servitio Domini Regis potest fieri pro petente sicut pro tenente factum fuit Anno quarto decimo Edwardi Regis Tertii that such a Writ of Warranty by reason of the Kings service may be made aswell for the Demandant as the Tenant and that the like was done in the fourteenth year of the raign of that King So as such or the like proceedings against any of the Kings Servants whereby to bereave them of their just Priviledges may deserve the Cheque and Comptrol of the
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 â—at 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 persevâ—raret â—irmiter 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 Princâ—s 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nuncupatur potestas Dominium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui potestate fretus est judiciumque exercet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi habitacula Domini That Curia signifieth Power and Dominion and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that exerciseth that Power in giving Judgment therein and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 cauâ—ing 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 conâ—ined 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