disobliging unto any of them was to fall foul or out of the favour of all their great Alliances Friends Kindred numberless Tenants Servants Retainers Dependants and well-Wishers many of which being their own Relations Friends or Kindred might either help on and bring upon them a most certain and inevitable Ruine or put their small and fainting Estates into a languishing Condition when any the least Offences taken or given would be sure to effect it in the Displeasure of those who until the Reign of King Edward the First and some Ages after were so high and potent As that Ferrers Earl of Darby an Opposite to King Henry the Third in the Baron's Wars had Twenty Lordships in Barkeshire Three in Wiltshire in Essex Five in Oxfordshire Seven in Warwickshire Six in Lincolnshire Two in Buckinghamshire Two in Gloucestershire One Herefordshire Two Hantshire Three Nottinghamshire Three Leicestershire Thirty-Five Derbyshire One Hundred and Fourteen Staffordshire Seven of which was Chedley a parcel whereunto that part of Staffordshire appertained and besides had the Castle and Borough of Tudbury in that County together with many Advowsons Patronages c. and Knights Fees holding of him in those and other parts of England An Ancestor of Gilbert de Gaunt a partaker of the Norman Conquest another Opposite of King Henry the Third had in the Conquerors Survey One Lordship in Barkshire Three in Yorkshire Six in Cambridgeshire Two in Buckinghamshire One in Huntingtonshire Five in Northamptonshire One in Rutland One in Leicestershire One in Warwickshire Eighteen in Nottinghamshire One Hundred and Thirteen in Lincolnshire with Folkingham which was the Head of his Barony besides Knights Fees of those that held of him Patronages and Advowsons Fairs Markets Assize of Bread and Beer Pillory and Tumbrel c. Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester was in the right of Amicia one of the Sisters and Co-heirs of Robert Fitz Parnel a Norman Earl of Leicester Lord high Steward of England in Fee an Office of Large Authority and Esteem had in Warwickshire Sixty-Four Lordships in Leicestershire Sixteen in Wiltshire Seven in Northamptonshire Three in Gloucestershire One besides many Knights Fees of those that held of him Advowsons Patronages Fairs Markets and the priviledges of Pillory Tumbrel and the Assize of Bread and Beer The Earl of Gloucester and Hartford had Thirty-Eight Lordships in Surrey Thirty-Five in Essex Three in Cambridgeshire Halling and Bermeling Castle in Kent Haresfeild in Middlesex Sudtime in Wiltshire Leviston in Devonshire Ninety-Five in Suffolke besides Thirteen Burgages in or near Ipswich of which Clare was one from whence that Family took their Surname or it from them had the Town and Castle of Tunbridge in Kent the Castle of Brianels in the County of Gloucester and whilst the King and his Son Edward were Prisoners at Lewis obtained a Grant under the Great Seal of all the Lands and large Possessions of Iohn Warren Earl of Surrey to hold at the King's Pleasure except the Castles of Rigate and Lewis was one of the Chief that extorted a Commission from the King authorizing Stephen Bishop of Chichester Symon Montfort and himself to nominate Nine as well Prelates as Barons to manage all things according to the Laws and Customes of the Kingdom until the Determinations should be made at Lewis and others which they better liked should take Effect Awbrey de Vere in the general Survey of William the Conqueror had Cheviston now Kensington Geling and Emingford in com Hunt Nine Lordships in Suffolk Fourteen in Essex whereof Colne Hengham and Bentley were part in Warwickshire Six in Leicestershire Fourteen in Northamptonshire Six in Oxfordshire Two and in Wiltshire Ten a Descendant of whom had in the Raign of King Stephen together with Richard Basset Justice of England custodiam Comitatus and executed the Sheriffs Offices of Surrey Cambridge Huntington Essex Hartford Northampton Leicester Norfolk Suffolk Buckingham and Bedford had by the Grant of Maud the Empress and King Henry the Second her Son by inheritance the Earldom of Oxford granted unto him and his Heirs and Mannor and Castle of Caufeild in the County of Essex and the Office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England in Fee with the Castles of Hengham or Hedingham and Campes to be holden by that Service and divers other Lands and Possession of a great yearly Value had before the Fourth Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third by the Marriage of the Daughter and Heir of the Lord Bulbeck many Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Buckingham and Cambridge and by the Marriage of the Daughter and Heir of Gilbert Lord Sanford the Inheritance of divers Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Essex and Hartford and a Grant in Fee to be Chamberlain to the Queen die Coronationis suae with divers Priviledges and One Hundred Knights Fees holden of them one whereof was by the Heirs of Mordaunt for Lands in Essex to come compleatly Armed as Champion to the Heir of the Family and Earls of Oxford in the great Hall of Hedingham Castle upon the day of his Nuptials to defy and fight with any that should deny him to be Earl of Oxford and another for the Mannor of Horseth in the County of Cambridge holden by the Family of Allington now the Lord Allington of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Service of holding the Earl of Oxford's Stirrop die nuptiarum which was actually performed in the Raign of Queen Elizabeth the day of the Marriage of Edward Earl of Oxford with the Daughter of the Lord Burghley Roger Bygod in the Conquerors Time did possess Six Lordships in Essex and One Hundred Seventeen in Suffolk had a Grant in the Raign of King Henry the Second of the Mannors of Ersham Walsham Alvergate and Aclay and the Honour of Eye in the County of Suffolk the Custody of the Castle of Norwich and a Grant of the Office of high Steward of England to hold and enjoy in as ample manner as Roger Bygod his Father had held it in the time of King Henry the First was Earl Marshal of England by Inheritance and had thereby a great Command and Authority in the King's Armies and all his Martial Affairs registred in his Marshals Rolls those many Thousands who as Tenants in Capite came into the Army to perform their Service by which also they were enabled to receive Escuage after of those that were their Under-tenants and held of them and did not come to do their Service was in times of Peace as in War to appease Tumults to Guard the King's Palace distribute Liveries and Allowances to the Officers thereof attend at the doing of Homages have a Fee of every Baron made a Knight and to receive of every Earl doing Homage a Palfry and Furniture Hugh de Montfort Ancestor of Peter de Montfort one of the Twenty-Four enforced Conservators for the Kingdom in the said Raign of King Henry the Third had in the general Survey Twenty-Eight
Power or were Elected by Them THe Laws of GOD Nature and Nations our Laws of England and the Records thereof no Strangers at all unto them but much in League and Friendship with them did never deny our Kings and Princes to make use of the Councels and Advice of such of their Subjects as were fit and able to give it Nor did any of our Kings by such applications unto their Subjects for their advice and councels either in general or particular common publick or private Councels or any of their Laws Grants Charters or Customs ever allow them any co-ordinate or equal Authority with Them or over any of their Actions in the giving of their Approbation Advice or Consent Or otherwise if we may believe as we ought those Records and Accounts which the World and its aged Companion TIME have from their Infancies left and recommended unto us no such Liberties Customs or Priviledges at all ever appearing to have been granted or of right appertaining unto them by any Warrant Foundation Law Act of Parliament Reason Prescription or Custom In the time of our Ancestors the Britains Qui Legibus Romanis not of the Senate but the Emperours Caesareis seu imperialibus paruerunt quamdiu sub Imperio Romano which Mr. Selden hath asserted to have continued 360 years or thereabouts from the time of Claudius the Emperour to that of Honorius and that Severus the Emperour kept his Court for several years at York where Papinian that great and famous Lawyer sate Praetor or Lord Chief-Justice under him Which could not but introduce much of their Laws and Usages amongst us and the near succeeding Ages were so unwilling to part with them as they would never after be altogether Strangers unto them For King Aethelulph travelled with his Son Aelfred to Rome and Aelfred whilst he was there and likewise after his return and being King Librorum omnium notitiam habebat saith William of Malmsbury and was very learned as Asser Menevensis who was his Contemporary and privy to most of his Actions and Hoveden and Ingulsus have recorded it to Posterity Plurimam partem Romanae Bibliothecae Anglorum auribus dedit And Offa King of the Mercians had in the year of Christ 790. before the time of Aethelulph sounded erected and maintained in Rome a Schola Saxonica which could not be either constituted or continued without some Commerce with the Latian Language and Laws the one being likely to be an effectual means to convey the other and by a constant intercourse continue the course and knowledge of some part of these Laws and Customs in England Or in any of those Laws which Dunwallo Molmucius cujus Leges Molmucianae dicebantur ordained Or in those which Mercia Regina Britonum Uxor Gurtheli à qua Provincia Merciorum containing Gloucester shire and seven other Counties putatur denominata edit as an authentique Historian saith discretione justitia plenas quae Lex mercia dicebatur Of King Ethelbert Circa annum salutis 588 or 613. qui sub Heptarchia Saxonum as venerable Bede relates it decreta judieiorum inter subditos suos juxta exempla Romanorum Consilio sapientum constituit decreta judiciorum scribi fecit genti suae Et sub Saxonibus Danis quamvis pauciora Legum Romanorum vestigia reperiamus The learned Dr. Duck seconded by Dr. Langham in observationibus de antiquitatibus legibus Romanorum in Britannia exercitatissimus have not indiligently noted constabit tamen Reges eorum qui reliquis pietate virtute gloriae cupiditate praecelluerunt in judiciis jure dicundo inter subditos suos ad exempla Romanorum saepius se composuisse In the Laws of King Ina who about the year 712 after the Redemption of Mankind suesu instituto Cenradi Patris sui Heddae Erkenwaldi Episcoporum suorum omnium Senatorum suorum natu majorum sapientum populi sui in magna servorum Dei frequentia commanded ut justa judicia per omnem ditionem suam fundita stabilitaque sint at que ut nulli liceat in posterum Senatori sive alteri cuivis in ditione sua degenti sua antiquare judicia institutiones sive Leges genti suae condidit solempnes Of King Alured who about the year 871. prudentissimorum è suis consilio declaring that many of the Laws of his Ancestors quae sibi minus commoda videbantur ex consulto sapientum partim antiquanda partim innovanda curavit quaecunque in actis Inae gentilis sui Offae Merciorum Regis vel Ethelbert qui primus Anglorum sacrotinctus est Baptismato observatu digna deprehensus fuit ea collegit omnia reliqua plane omisit atque in istis discernendis prudentis simorum è suis consilio usus atque iis omnibus placuit editi eorum observationes Or in the League made betwixt King Alured and Guthrun the Dane or afterwards betwixt King Edward and Guthrum à sapientibus recitata sepius atque ad commodum Regni utilitatem aucta amplificata Or in or by any of the Books if they were extant and now to be seen said to have been collected and written by that great King viz. Breviarium quoddam collectum ex Legibus Trojanorum Graecorum Britannorum Saxonorum Danorum 2o. Visi Saxonum Leges 3o. Instituta quaedam 4o. Contra judices iniquos 5o. Dicta sapientum 6o. Acta Magistratum 7o. Collectiones Chronicorum Or by the Laws of King Edward about the year 900. where iis omnibus qui Reip. praesunt etiam atque etiam mandavit ut omnibus quoad ejus facere poterint aequos se praebeant judices perinde ut in judiciali libro scriptum habetur nec quicquid formident jus commune audacter liberèque dicant ac litibus singulis dies quibus dijudicentur condictos statuit Of King Athelstan about the year 924. the Heptarchy being then reduced to its pristine estate of Monarchy Consilio Ulfhelmi Archiepiscopi aliorumque Episcoporum servorum Dei. Or in his Laws not long before made in a Councel held at Exeter where he was as they mention sapientibus stipatus Of King Edmond made in a Councel at London about the year 940. tam Ecclesiasticorum quam Laicorum cui interfuerunt Oda Wolstanus Archipraesul plurimique alii Episcopi Or in or by the first written Laws of the Britains about the same time in the Reign of their King Howel Dha stiled the Good the Bards and Druids men of great veneration power and esteem amongst them not before recommending to posterity or committing to writing any of their Laws Customs or Memorials qui convocati Episcopis Laicis doctissimis Leges antiquas correxit novas condidit Or in the Laws which King Eldred made about the year 948. in festo nativitatis beatae Mariae when universi magnates Regni per Regium edictum summoniti tam Archiepiscopi totius Regni quam
themselves to the service of their Countrey-men But he was not yet so forsaken for that he had power enough to infest though not to subdue his enemies and some faith was found amongst many of his Subjects that well executed their trusts Dover Castle with a small company held out against all the Force which Lewis could bring against it Windsor Castle did the like against the Barons Nottingham and Lincoln Castles made resolute resistance The most fertil places of the Kingdom as about Gloucester the Marches of Wales Lincolnshire Cambridgeshire Norfolk Suffolk Essex Kent and all about London were the stages of the War and the Ruins of the Kingdom were every where heard and felt which continuing all that Summer about the latter-end of October then next following that distressed King oppressed with as many sorrows as enemies and a grief conceived for the loss of his Carriages and other necessaries of War sunk in the Sands passing the Washes betwixt Lyn and Boston fell sick of a burning Feaver taken as some writers have recorded it by a surfeit of eating Peaches and drinking new Ale out of a Cup with the Venom prick'd out of a Toad put into it given him by a Monk at Swinsted Abbey in Lincolnshire who after leave given by the Abbot and assoiled or absolved from the doing thereof was content to poyson himself as he did and bringing the Cup unto the King sitting at meat said Wassail for never in all your lyfe drancke yee of so goode a Cuppe To whom the King said drincke Monch which he doing and the King having drunk a great draught did set down the Cup. The Monk retired into the Infirmatory where his Bowels brake assunder The King finding himself ill at ease and his Belly beginning to swell and being told that the Monk was dead commanded the Table to be taken away and a Truss to be provided for him of which vulgata fama Ranulphus Cestrensis Henry de Knighton the Book of St. Albans printed by Caxton in the year 1502. in his Chronicle and Mr. William Pryn in his late History of the Pope's Usurpations in England in the Reign of King John have given a probable account though many of the Monks and the then Romish Clergy fatned and grown great by the Pope's and their extravagant and never-to-be-proved Authority over Kings and Kingdoms were so unwilling to acknowledge it as they did all they could to stifle and over-cast with Lies the Truth of it Whence in great weakness he who was so little enclined to Paganism or the Religion of Miramolin King of Africk Morocco and Spain or guilty of sending Embassadors unto him after or before the surrender of his Kingdoms to the Pope with an offer to be his Tributary and of his Religion of which saith Mr. Pryn upon a most diligent search no vestigia or manner of evidence is to be found amongst the Records of this Kingdom it being a meer scandal and slanderous invective forged against him to make him odious was conveyed to Newark where after he had received the Eucharist and taken order for the succession of his Son Henry he departed this life and was buried at Worcester and such a care was taken by the Abbot of Swinsted for the safety of the poysoning Monk's Soul as five Monks until the dissolution of that Abbey which was 300 years after were from time to time stipended to sing a Requiem for it SECT IV. The many Affronts Insolencies and ill usages suffered by King Henry III. until the granting of his Magna Charta and Charta de Forestae WHich tragical end of King John although it much altered the state of the Kingdom yet not as to the miseries and troubles thereof for King Henry his Son being solemnly crowned as a King by Succession and not Election was committed to the care and tutelage of Marescal Earl of Pembroke as Good and Wise as he was Great a main Pillar of the Father and a Preserver of the Crown to his Son who with Guallo the Pope's Legate the Bishops of Winchester Bath and Worcester did work all means to bring the Barons to an accord excommunicated Lewis and his adhaerents and caused great satisfaction in the minds of some who before were disgusted with the insolency of the French and the more upon the confession of one of the Nobility of France who upon his death-bed touch'd with compunction revealed the intention of Lewis to enslave or extinguish the English Nation whom he thought not fit to be trusted in regard that they had forsaken their Sovereign Lord which wrought so great an aversion in the English as they who before were afraid for the shame of inconstancy and the danger of their Sons and Pledges carried into France and there remaining did now resolve to relinquish their Homage and sworn Fidelity and forsake him and made as much hast to send him out of England as they did to call him into it So as after a years trouble with his Wars and Depraedations and all the help the City of London could give him he was enforced to come to an accord quit the Kingdom take 15000 Marks for the charges of his Voyage abjure his claim to the Kingdom promise by Oath to procure as far as in him lay his Father to restore all such Provinces in France as appertained to the Crown of England and when he came to be King to resign them in a peaceable manner King Henry taking an Oath and for him the Legate and Protector to restore to the Barons and other his Subjects all their Rights and Heritages with their Liberties for which the Discords began between the late King and his People whereupon a general Pardon was granted and all Prisoners freed on both sides Lewis after so long abode with his Army in England being honourably attended to Dover departed the Kingdom and about Michaelmas after upon the death of his Father was received and crowned King of France and Guallo the Legate well paid for his Negotiation returning to Rome carried with him 12000 Marks a great sum of money in those times And no sooner had that provident Protector of the Kingdom the Earl of Pembroke quieted the many troubles of the Nation but as much wanted as greatly lamented by the People he dyed The Bishop of Winchester with many other great Councellors being made Protectors of the young King and his Kingdoms but the King of France being after requested to make restitution of what he had usurped answered That what he had gotten by the forfeiture of King John upon an accusation of murdering his Nephew Arthur right Heir to the Crown of England he would hold Howsoever Peace being made with Scotland to whose King the King's Sister being married Wales revolted and an Insurrection being made in Ireland did put the King to much trouble and charge who being come to some years of understanding was in a Parliament holden at London put in mind by the Archbishop of
that the Orders concluded in Parliament were not observed in the levying and disposing of the Subsidy and over-strict courses had been taken in the valuation of mens Estates William Valence the Queens Uncle was grown the only man with him and nothing was done without him the Earl of Provence his Father a poor Prince was invited to come into England to participate of the Treasure and Riches thereof Symon de Montfort a French man born banished out of France by Queen Blanch was entertained in England preferred secretly in marriage with the King's Sister Widow of William Earl of Pembroke the great Marshal made Earl of Leicester and Steward of England in the right of his Mother Amice Daughter of Blanchmains Earl of Leicester Which incensing many of the Nobility and in them not a few of the common people did begin to raise a Commotion wherein they procured Richard Earl of Cornwal Brother to the King and Heir-apparent the King having then no Child to head their Party and manage their Grievances which amongst many pretended were That he despised the counsel of his natural Subjects and followed that of the Pope's Legate as if he had been the Pope's Feudatory Upon which harsh Remonstrance the King having sent to sound the affections of the Londoners found them to be against him Summoned a Parliament in the 22d year of his Reign at London whither the Lords came armed both for their own Safety and to constrain him if he refused to the keeping of his promises and reformation of his courses wherein after many debatements the King taking his Oath to refer the business according to the order of certain grave men of the Kingdom Articles were drawn sealed and publickly set up under the Seals of the Legate and divers great Men But before any thing could be effected Symon Montfort working a Peace for himself with the Earls of Cornwal and Lincoln with whom he and the other Barons had been before displeased the Earl grew cold in the business which the other Lords perceiving nothing more was at that time done Symon Norman called Master of the King's Seal and said to be Governour of the affairs of the Kingdom had the Seal taken from him and some others whom the Nobility maligned displaced And in the same year an Assassinate attempting to kill the King as he was in Bed instigated thereunto by William de Marisco the Son of Jeffrey de Marisco was for the Fact drawn in pieces with Horses and afterwards hang'd and quarter'd And some years after the King having a Son born his Brother the Earl of Cornwal having likewise Issue did by permission of the State which before he could not obtain undertake the Cross and with him the Earl of Salisbury and many other Noblemen The Earl of March the Queen-Mother and certain Lords of Poicteau incited the King to make a War with France to which some of the English who claimed Estates therein were very willing but the matter being moved in Parliament a general opposition was made against it the great expences thereof and the ill suceess it lately had and it was vehemently urged That it was unlawful to break the Truce made with the King of France who was now too strong for them notwithstanding many of the Peers in the hopes of recovering their Estates so prevailed as an Aid demanded for the same was granted but so ill resented by others as all the King's supplies from the beginning of his Reign were particularly and opprobriously remembred as the Thirteenth Fifteenth Sixteenth Thirtieth and Fortieth part of all mens Movables besides Carucage Hydage Escuage Escheats Amerciaments and the like which would as they said be enough to fill his Coffers in which considerations also and reckonings with the Pope's continual exactions and the infinite charge of those who undertook the Holy War were not omitted besides it was declared how the Thirtieth lately levyed being ordered to be kept in certain Castles and not to be issued but by the allowance of some of the Peers was yet unspent the King no necessary occasion for it for the use of the Commonwealth for which it was granted and therefore resolutely denyed to grant any more whereupon he came himself to the Parliament and in a submissive manner craving their aid urged the Popes Letter to perswade them thereunto but by a vow made unto each other all that was said was not able to remove their resolutions insomuch as he was driven to get what he could of particular men by Gifts or Loans and took so great a care of his poorer Subjects at or about the same time as he did by his Writ in the 23d year of his Reign command William de Haverhul and Edward Fitz-Odo That upon Friday next after the Feast of St. Matthias being the Anniversary of Eleanor Queen of Scotland his Sister they should cause to be fed as many Poor as might be entertained in the greater Hall of Westminster and did in the same year by another Writ command the said William de Haverhull to feed 15000 Poor at St. Peters in London on the Feast-day of the Conversion of St. Peter and 4000 Poor upon Monday next after the Feast of St. Lucie the Virgin in the great Hall at Westminster And for quiet at home whilst he should be absent in France contracted a marriage betwixt his youngest Daughter Margaret and Alexander eldest Son of Alexander III. King of Scotland but his expedition in France not succeeding his Treasure consumed upon Strangers the English Nobility discontented and by the Poictovins deceiving his Trust in their not supplying him with money he was after more than a years stay the Lords of England leaving him constrained to make a dishonourable Truce with the King of France and to return having been relieved with much Provisions out of England and Impositions for Escuage a Parliament was in the 28th year of his Reign assembled at Westminster wherein his Wars the revolt of Wales and Scotland who joyned together and the present occasions of the necessary defence of the Kingdom being pressed nothing could be effected without the assurance of Reformation and the due execution of Laws whereupon he came again himself in person and pleaded his own necessities but that produced no more than a desire of theirs to have ordained that four of the most grave and discreet Peers should be chosen as Conservators of the Kingdom and sworn of the Kings Council both to see Justice observed and the Treasure issued and ever attend about him or at least three or two of them That the Lord Chief-Justiciar and Lord Chancellor should be chosen by the general voices of the States assembled or else be of the number of those four and that there might be two Justices of the Benches two Barons of the Exchequer and one Justice for the Jews and those likewise to be chosen by Parliament that as their Function was publick so should also be their Election At which time the
praefatae sententiae ligentur omnes venientes contrà libertates contentas in ehartis communium libertatum Angliae de foresta omnes qui libertates Ecclesiae Angicanae temporibus Domini Regis Praedecessorum suorum Regum Angliae optentas usitatas scienter malitiosè violaverint aut infringere praesumpserint omnes illi qui pacem Domini Regis Regni perturbaverint similiter omnes qui jura libertates Domini Regis Regni diminuere infringere seu immutare praesumpserint quòd omnes venientes contrà praemissa vel eorum aliqua ignoranter legitimè moniti infra quindenam post monitionem praemissam dictam transgressionem non emendaverint ex tunc praedictae sententiae excommunicationis subjacebunt ità tamen quod Dominus Rex transgressionem illam per considerationem curiae suae faciat emendari sciendum autem quod si in scriptis super eadem sententia à quibuscunque confectis seu conficiendis aliud vel alitèr appositum vel adjectum fuerit aut articuli aliqui alii in eis contenti inveniantur Dominus Rex praedicti Magnates omnes communicatas populi protestantur publicè in praesentiâ venerabilium patrum B. Dei Gratiâ Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi totius Angliae Primatis nec non Episcoporum omnium in eodem colloquio existentium quòd in ea nunquam consenserunt nec consentiunt sed de plano eis contradicunt praetere à praefatus Dominus Rex in prolatione praefat ' sententiae omnes libertates consuetudines Regni sui autiquas usitates Dignitates jura Coronae suae ore proprio specialiter sibi Regno suo salvavit excepit In cujus rei memoriam in posterum veritatis testimonium tà m Dominus Rex quam praedicti Comites ad instantiam aliorum Magnatum Populi praesenti scripto sigilla sua apposuerunt Gascoign a great Province in France having been before the King had any Son granted by him by the counsel of the Lords to his Brother Richard Earl of Cornwal who was there received as their Lord and so continued until the King had Issue of his own after which revoking his Grant and conferring it upon his Son Edward the Earl though he were deprived of his Possession not being willing to forgo his Right the King in great displeasure commanded him to resign his Charter which he refusing to do the Citizens of Burdeaux were commanded to take and imprison but would not adventure thereon Notwithstanding money being offered and like to effect more than his command the Earl in danger to be surprized came over into England whereupon the King assembled the Nobility of Gascoign promised them 30000 Marks to renounce their homage and fealty to his Brother which being not accepted he sent Symon Montfort Earl of Leicester a rough and martial man in revenge thereof to be their Governour under him for six years and furnished him with 1000 Marks in order thereto whom Montfort by a stern Government so discontented as they and the Archbishop of Burdeaux accused him of heinous Crimes which was a cause of Montford s sending for over And the King resolute in maintaining the Gascoigners that sturdy Earl Montfort who had forgotten that he was an Alien himself and had received of the King large Gifts Preferments and Honours both in France and England unto whom the Earl of Cornwal with the discontented part of the English Baronage joyning complained as much of the Aliens viz. William of Valence Earl of Pembroke Guy de Lusignan the King's half-brothers by his Mother and the many French and Poictovins that over-much governed him and his Counsels as they did again complain of the breach of the Great Charter which was seldom omitted out of the Reer of their grievances which at last came to such an undutiful contest as Montfort upbraiding the King with his expenceful service wherein he alledged he had utterly consumed his Estate and said that he had broken his word with him the King in great rage told him That no promise was to be observed with an unworthy Traytor wherewith Montfort rose up and protested that he lyed in that word and were he not protected by his Royal Dignity he would make him repent it The King commanded his Servants to lay hold of him which the Lords would not permit wherewith Montfort growing more audacious the King told him He never repented of any thing so much as to have permitted him to enter into his Kingdom and to have honoured and instated him as he had done But shortly after the Gascoigns being again encouraged by the King against Montfort and that Province given to his Son Edward and Montfort sent thither a Governour again though with clipt wings grows enflamed as much as the Gascoigns were one against another but Montfort by his great Alliance with France overcame them who in the 38th year of the King's Reign being discharged of the Government retired from thence and refusing an offered entertainment by the French King returned into England where the King besides Gascoigny having given Ireland Wales Bristol Stamford and Grantham to the Prince and consumed all that ever he could get in that and the former expeditions which he had made which was reckoned to have cost him Twenty seven hundred thousand pounds which were said to have been more than the Lands endeavoured to have been regained were worth if they were to be sold. A Parliament was called in Easter-Term following which brought a return of grievances and complaints of the breach of Charters and a demand for former pretended rights in electing the Justiciar Chancellor and Treasurer whereupon after much debate to no purpose the Parliament was prorogued until Michaelmas next after when likewise the King's motion for money was disappointed by reason of the absence of many Peers being not as was alledged summoned according to Magna Charta In the mean time the Pope to destroy Manfred Son to the Emperour Frederick who was in possession of the Kingdom of Sicily and Apulia sent the Bishop of Bononia with a Ring of investiture of the Kindom of Sicily to Edmond the King's second Son with the hopes of which his Praedecessor Innocent IV. had before deluded the King himself And the King being offered to be absolved from his Oath of undertaking the holy Wars so as he would help to destroy Manfred the Emperour Frederick's Son who being Victorious had no mind to be so ill used The Legate returned with great gifts and a Prebendary of York but could not obtain his design of collecting the Tenths in England Scotland and Ireland to the use of the Pope and the King for that the Clergy growing jealous m that the 〈…〉 g and the Pope were confederate therein protested rather to lose their Lives and Livings than to be made a prey to either the Pope in the mean time having upon that vain hope cunningly wrapt him in an obligation of 15000 Marks Upon
his to come into England but such only as the King and the Lords should like The Poictovins landing at Boloign had much-a-do to gain passage into their own Countreys by reason that Henry de Montfort Son to the Earl of Leicester whose power was very great in France had followed them thither Rumours were spread amongst the people in England that the Earl of Gloucester was attempted to have been poyson'd and one of his Servants executed upon no other proof but presumption and every one that would complain of the Poictovins wanted no encouragement Richard Gray whom the Lords had made Captain of the Castle of Dover intercepted as much as he could of what the Poictovins carried over and enriched himself thereby The new Chief-Justice Hugh Bigod Brother to the Earl Marshal being chosen in the last Parliament by publick voice procured an order that four Knights in every Shire should enquire of the poor oppressed by great men and certifie the same to the Baronage under their hands and seals which were never found to have been certified And made an Order that no man should give any thing besides Provisions for Justice or to hinder the same and that both the corrupter and corrupted should be grievously punished Notwithstanding which pretended care the Lords enforceing the service of the King's Tenants which dwelt near unto them were as totidem Tyranni furnished the especial Fortresses of the Kingdom with Garrisons of their own sworn to the common State and took the like assurance of all Sheriffs Bailiffs Coroners and other publick Ministers with strict Commissions upon Oath to examine their behaviour And to make the King and his actions the more odious and their own more popular it was rumoured that the King's necessities must be repaired out of the Estates of his people and he must not want whilst they had it Whereupon the King to defend himself from such scandals was constrained to publish his Declaration to desire the people to give no credit to such false suggestions for that he was ready to defend all Rights and Customs due unto them Howsoever Montfort Gloucester and Spencer who had by the late constitution of the twenty-four Conservators drawn the entire managing of the Kingdom into their hands enforced the King to call a Parliament at London where the authority of the twenty-four Conservators was placed in themselves and order taken that three at the least should attend at the Court to dispose of the custody of Castles and other business of the Kingdom of the Chancellor Chief-Justiciar Treasurer and all other Officers great and small and bound the King to release to them their legal Obedience whensoever he infringed his Charter In the mean time the Earl of Cornwal King of the Romans being dispossest of that Kingdom or not well liking it returning into England the Barons send to know the cause of his coming and require of him an Oath before he should land not to prejudice their late established Orders of the Kingdom which he sternly refused saying He had no Peer in England being the Son and Brother of a King and was above their power and if they would have reformed the Kingdom they ought first to have sent for him and not so presumptuously have attempted a business of so high a nature The Lords upon return of such an answer sent to guard the Ports came strongly to the Coast prepared to encounter him and the King Queen and their Son Edmond in a more loving manner go to Dover to receive him but neither they nor the Earl of Cornwal were by them permitted to enter into the Castle for that it was the chief Fortress of the Kingdom But finding the Earl of Cornwal's Train small they suffered him to land and did upon his promise to take the propounded Oath bring him and the King into the Chapter-house at Canterbury where the Earl of Gloucester standing forth in the midst in the presence of the King called forth the Earl not by the name of King but Earl of Cornwal who in reverend manner coming forth took his Oath That he would be faithful and diligent with the Barons to reform the Kingdom by the counsel of wicked persons over-much disordered and to be an effectual Coadjutor to expel Rebels and disturbers of the same under pain of losing all the Lands which he held in England After which both parties strengthening themselves all they could the King for the assurance of the King of France ex praecepto consilio Domini Regis Angliae totius Baronagii sent the Earls of Gloucester Leicester Peter de Subaudia John Mansel and Robert Walerand to the Parliament of Paris de arduis negotiis Regna Angliae Franciae contingentibus carrying with them a resignation of the Dutchy of Normandy and the Earldoms of Anjou Poicteau Turaine and Mayne for which the King of France was to give him three hundred thousand pounds with a grant of all Guyen beyond the River of Garonna all the River of Xantoigne to the River of Charente and the Counties of Limosin and Quercy to him and his Successors dong his Homage and Fealty to the Crown of France as a Duke of Aquitain and a Peer of that Kingdom After whose return Montfort as he had incensed others so had he those that animated him against the King as Walter Bishop of Worcester and Robert Bishop of Lincoln who enjoyned him upon the remission of his sins to prosecute the cause unto death affirming that the peace of the Church of England would never be established but by the Sword But the people being oppressed and tired at length with those commotions part-takings and discords which by the provisions wrested from the King at Oxford and so many mischiefs and inconveniencies had harassed and almost ruined them and did help to increase rather than decrease those troubles and controversies which afflicted the Nation it having never been easie to bring those that were to be governed to rule with any modesty or moderation those that had enjoyed a governing power in authority established and appointed by God in a well-temper'd Monarchy and succession for many Ages or those that were to govern to obey the giddy and unjust dictates of those who were to obey them or to unite in any contenting harmony the various ambitions envies revenges hatreds partialities self-interests and designs of many or a multitude or such enforcements and contrivances to be lasting durable or pleasing and that all could not well rule or agree how to do it The King and Queen keeping their Christmas in the Tower of London cum suis consiliariis saith Matthew Paris elaboratum fuit tam à Regni Angliae pontificibus quam à Regni Franciae ut pax reformaretur inter Regem Angliae Barones ventumque est ad illud ut Rex Proceres se submiserunt ordinationi Regis Franciae in praemissis provisionibus Oxoniae nec non pro depraedationibus damnis utrobique
illatis who had been so good a friend to the rebellious Barons and so great a favourer of them as after his expulsion out of England whither they had invited him toaid and assist them against K. John and an agreement made with K. Henry III. his Son to restore unto him the Dutchy of Normandy and the other Provinces which he had from him in France as he denied to re-deliver them until the Liberties claimed by the English Barons his old Friends should be confirmed unto them by whose Quarrels with their Sovereigns he had gained many great advantages to the wrong and damage of the Crown of England And was all the while a very great enemy both to the King and his Father who notwithstanding was with the Prince his Son Richard Earl of Cornwal King of the Romans with others of the Loyal Nobility of the Kings part and the contending Rebellious Lords of the other side by mutual Oaths tactis sacrosanctis Evangeliis in the 47th year of his Reign did undertake to perform and abide by his award so as it were made and pronounced betwixt that and the Feast of Pentecost then next ensuing unto which none of the Commons of England do appear to have been parties Whereupon the King of France taking upon him the said arbitration congregato in crastino sancti Vincentii Ambiomis populo penè innumerabili coram Episcopis Comitibus aliisque Francorum proceribus solemniter dedit sententiam pro Rege Angliae contra Barones Statutis Oxoniae provisionibus ordinationibus ac obligationibus penitus annullatis hoc excepto quod antiquas Chartas Regis Johannis Angliae universitati concessas per illam sententiam in nullo intendebat penitùs derogare And made his award accordingly in writing an exemplification or authentick Copy whereof is yet to be seen amongst the Records in His now Majesty's Treasury at Westminster Quae quidem exceptio Comitem Leicestriae coeteros qui habebunt sensus exercitatos saith Matthew Paris compulit in praeposito tenere firmitèr Statuta Oxoniae que fundata fuerant super illam Chartam Et eo tempore redierint à Francia qui Parliamento Regis Francia interfuerant Rex videlicet Angliae Henricus Regina Eleanora Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis Bonifacius Petrus Herefordensis Episcopus Johannes Mansel qui Baronibus saith that Monk of St. Albans mala quanta potuerunt non cessabant machinari Which exception could neither absolve them from their Oaths so solemnly taken to perform the award which the King of France had made or purge them from their former and after Rebellions against King Henry III. or their ill usage of him SECT VI. That the Exceptions mentioned in the King of France's award of the Charter granted by King John could not invalidate the whole award or justifie the provisions made at Oxford which was the principal matter referred unto him FOr that the contrivance of the twenty-four Conservators and what else was added thereunto by the aforesaid Provisions and constrained Ordinances made at Oxford was never any part of the Magna Charta or the Charta de Foresta enforced from King John but a security seperate and collateral thereunto framed and devised at the same time for the better observation and performance of those Charters which the preamble of that security of which Matthew Paris hath at large left unto posterity an exemplar may abundantly evidence in the words following viz. Cum autem pro Deo ad emendationem Regni nostri ad melius sopiendam discordiam inter nos Barones nostros haec omnia concessimus volentes ea integra firma stabilitate gaudere facimus concedimus eis securitatem subscriptam viz. quod Barones eligant viginti quinque Barones de Regno nostros quos voluerint c. and doth greatly differ both in the material and formal parts thereof from the provisions afterwards enforced at Oxford as by a just collation and comparison of that collateral security with those provisions may appear where care is taken but for twenty-four Conservators twelve to be chosen by the King and twelve by those factious Lords who would likewise engross to themselves and their party the nomination of the Chancellor Treasurer two Chief-Justices two of the Justices of both the Benches and Barons of the Exchequer and have the making of the Chief-Justice of the Iews to which the King and his Son the Prince were sworn but to the Running-Mead unkingly shackles or security the King and those masterly Barons were only sworn and that not thought sufficient without some principal Castles of the Kings were to be put into hands of those Conservators and that upon complaint made to the King or his Chief-Justice if reformation were not made within a time limited the Conservators and the common people were to distrain gravere eum which would amount to a licensed Rebellion with a salvis personis only of the King and his Queen and Children all the great men of the Kingdom and the common people and as many as would being also to take their Oaths to be aiding and assisting to those Conservators in a kind or much resembling the late ASSOCIATION who were themselves to take their Oaths well and truly to execute their multiplied Kingships and clip as much as they could the more just Authority and Rights of their Sovereign But in those of Oxford there was so much kindness shewed to themselves and care taken of their own tender consciences as not to be sworn at all and must needs be an excellent contrivance for the invisible good of the Kingdom and a rare performance of their Homage Fealty and Oaths of Allegiance to take the power and authority from a King which should enable him to perform his Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta freely granted unto them and put it into their own hands to break those Charters and his Oaths and to protect and do Justice unto his people as oft as their malice ambitious envies avarice revenge interests designs corruptions or domineering passions of themselves and their Wives being not a few in number and their numerous adhaerents should incite or persuade them unto and were so confident of their over-ruling party no provision being at all made in those which were made at Oxford if any discords should arise in the election of the one twelve or the other or in the continuance of their agreements together shares or parts in the Government of their King and fellow-Subjects as believing that the power of the twelve Barons chosen by themselves would be either praedominant over the twelve which were to be named by the King or their newly-usurped authority would be so complaisant and well-pleasing unto all the twenty-four as flattery fear or interest would so quiet any to be supposed discords as they should not need to fall out at a Feast or divide disturb or destroy themselves by Factions the security given at Running-Mead ordaining only twenty-five
correction or explicacation mad therein So as that meeting and re-referrence proved to be only an essay for a pacification For that haughty Earl Montfort hated the King and endeavouring all he could his destruction so thwarted all his actions and domineer'd over him as the King told him openly That he feared him more than any Thunder or Tempest in the world Being not pleased with what had been proposed at that revisionary Treaty for what concerned his own particular interest and satisfaction would rather bleed and embroil the Nation than acquiesce in those excellent Laws and Liberties which the King had granted in his Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta which like two Jewels of inestimable price in her ears did help to bless secure and adorn our BRITANNIA whilst She sate upon Her Promontory viewing and guarding Her British-Seas and did therefore draw and entice as many as he could to go along with his envy malice ambition and designs With which Ordination Sentence and Award of the King of France against the Barons many were notwithstanding so well satisfied with the King and so ill with Symon Montfort's proud and insolent demeanour as they withdrew themselves from the rebellious part of the Barons and although some for a while staggered in their Opinions and Loyalty because though the King of France condemned the provisions made at Oxford yet he allowed King John's Charter whereby he left as they pretended the matter as he found it for that these Provisions as those Barons alledged were grounded upon that Charter But a better consideration made many to dispence with their ill-taken Oaths and return to their Loyalty as Henry Son of the Earl of Cornwall Roger de Clifford Roger de Leybourne Hamo L'Estrange and others And it is worthy a more than ordinary remarque that that King of France and his Councel upon view and hearing of so many Controversies and Tronsactions betwixt our King Henry III. and his rebellious Barons could not be strangers to the former and latter attempts ill-doings and designs of that Party of the English Baronage did so little approve thereof and of their Parliamentary Insolencies and Oxford Provisions as his Grand-child or Successor Philip le Bel King of France who reigned in the time of our Edward I. did within less than forty years after Pour oster saith l'Oyseau a very learned French Author de la suitte le Parlement qui lors estoit le conseil ordinaire des Roys voir leur faisoit Teste bien sauvent luy oster doucement la cognossance des affaires d'Estat to the no great happiness as it afterwards proved of the French Nation erigea un cour ordinaire le rendit sedentaire a Paris dont encore il a retenu ce teste de son ancienne institution qu'il verifie homologue les Edicts du Roy. And now the doors of Janus Temple flew quite open the Prince with Lewellin Prince of Wales Mortimer and others invade and enter upon the Lands of Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and some of the opposite Nobility and the Earl of Leicester was as busie on the other side in seizing Gloucester and Worcester Whereupon the King doubting Montfort's approach to London being not yet ready for him works so as a mediation of Peace was assay'd upon condition that all the Castles of the King should be delivered to the keeping of the Barons the provisions of Oxford inviolably observed all strangers by a certain time should avoid the Kingdom except such as by a general consent should be held faithful and profitable for the same Here saith the Historian was a little pause which seemed but a breathing in order unto a greater rage The Prince fortifies victuals and garrisons Windsor Castle And the King to get time summoned a Parliament at London where he won many Lords to his party and with them Richard Earl of Cornwal his Brother King of Almaine Henry his Son William Valence with the rest of his Brethren marches to Oxford whither divers Lords of Scotland repair unto him as Iohn Comyn Iohn Baliol Lords of Galloway Robert Bruce and others with many English Barons Clifford Percy Basset c. from thence with all his Forces went to Northampton took Prisoner young Symon Montfort with fourteen other principal men thence to Nottingham spoiling the Possessions appertaining to the Barons in those parts The Earl of Leicester draws towards London to recover and make good that part of his greatest importance and seeks to secure Kent and the Ports which hastens the King to stop his proceedings and to succour the Castle of Rochester which he besieged whereby Success and Authority growing strong on the King's side the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester in behalf of themselves and their Party write unto the King humbly protesting their Loyalty alledge that they opposed only against such as were enemies to Him annd the Kingdom and had bely'd them unto which the King returned answer that Themselves were the perturbers of him and his State enemies to his Person and sought His and the Kingdoms destruction and therefore defy'd them the Prince and the Earl of Cornwal sending likewise their Letters of defyance unto them who doubting the hazard of a Battel send the Bishops of London and Worcester their former encouragers unto the King with an offer of 30000 Marks for damage done in those Wars so as the Provisions of Oxford might be observed Which not being condescended unto or thought fit to be allowed Montfort with his Partners seeing no other means but to put all to the hazard of a Battel made himself more ready than was expected placed on the side of an Hill near Lewis where the Battel was to be fought certain Ensigns without men which seemed afar off to be Squadrons ready to second his men whom he caused all to wear White Crosses both for their own notice and signification of the candour and innocency of his cause which he desired to have believed to be only for Justice And as Rebels first assaulting their King unexpectedly began to charge his Forces who were divided into three parts The first whereof was commanded by Prince Edward the King's Son William de Valence Earl of Pembroke and John Warren Earl of Surrey and Sussex the second by the King of Almaine and his Son Henry and the third by the King himself The Forces of the Barons ranged in four parts whereof the first was led by Henry de Montfort and the Earl of Hereford the second by Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford Iohn Fitz-John and William of Mount-Chency the third by the Londoners and Richard Segrave and the fourth by Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester himself and Thomas de Pelvesion And both sides fighting with as great manhood as fury the Prince and his Batalion cum tanto impetu in hostes irruil so beat and routed those that stood against him as he made them give back many
the Fryday before St Michael in the same Year as q'eux Prelatz ove le Clergie par eux mesmes les Counties Barons par eux mesmes Chivalers Gentz des Countes Gentz de la commun par eux mesmes en treteront imparterent temps 4. Vendredi prochein suont mesmes le Vendredi en plein Parlement les Prelatz par eux mesmes les Countes Barons par eux mesmes les Chivalers des Countes par eux mesmes puis toutz en commun responderont and the like we read of the Prelats Earls Barons and great men eux mesmes Chivalers Gentz des Countes of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses and Commons separate consultations by themselves and their several answers to the Articles and businesses propounded to them in the Parliaments of 13. E. 3. N. 6. 10. 11. part 2. N. 5. to 9. 14. E. 3. N. 6. 11. 17. E. 3. N. 9. 10. 11. 55. 58. Ro. Parl. 20. E. 3. N. 10. 11. Ro. Parl. 25. E. 3. N. 6. 7. Ro. Parl. 28. E. 3. N. 55. 56. Ro. Parl. 36. E. 3. N. 6. 7. Ro. Parl. 40. E. 3. N. 8. Ro. Parl. 42. E. 3. N. 7. Ro. Parl. 47. E. 3. N. 6. Ro. Parl. 50. 51. when the Commons had a Speaker and departed to their accustomed place in the Chapter-House of the Abby of Westminster And â—aith Sr William Dugdale at the Parliament holden at Gloucester in Anno Domini 1378. in the Reign of King Richard the 2d in refectorio de armorum legibus tractabatur aulae autem hospitium communi Parliamento erat deputata Porro in camera hospitii quae camera Regis propter ejus pulchritudinem antiquitus vocata est concilium secretum inter Magnates versabatur ac in domo capitulari concilium commune In the said Kings Reign the Knights and Burgesses were called by name in presence of the King In the great alterations betwixt the Lords and Commons and King Henry the 4th in the 9th Year of his Reign and a pacification and endeavour to reconcile the Lords and Commons the King sent unto the Commons to come before him and the Lords In a Parliament holden the 13th year of his Reign the Commons of Parliament were called at the door of the painted Chamber in the Kings Palace of Westminster and came which shews that they did not usually sit there In the 33. of King Henry the 8. The Duke of Suffolk then Lord Steward commanded the Clerk of the Parliament to call the Names of the House of Commons unto which every one answered being all in the upper house below the Barr and then the King came Nor was or is it likely to be within the verge or neighbourhood of any truth or reason that such an inferior sort of men as some citizens and Burgesses to be elected out of so many Citys and Boroughs as those enforced writs of Elections in Anno 49. H. 3. Designed when the Nobility and Gentry and the Laws of those times not only held but believed it to be a disparagement to a whole Kindred to Marry with the Daughters of Burgesses who might be understood to be either their Tenants or Dependents should presume or be allowed to Sit in one and the same Chamber room or place with their King sitting in his throne or chair of estate encompassed with his more noble and greatest councell the Lords Spirituall and Temporal the Peers in Parliament where none but the Peers themselves and their Assistants are permitted to sit and do then also sit uncovered when the civill and Caesarian Laws and the Laws and reasonable Customes of nations do so distinguish betwixt the noble and ignoble as if a Gentleman be present the ignoble or common persons shall arise from their seats and give diligent heed when he speaks and it is a peculiar honor due unto gentry to sit upon benches or seats and those who are otherwise are not to take the right hand of them or the chiefest seats in the company or to sit next the Judge before them are not to be so much valued in their testimonies and more credit ought to be given to the Oaths of two Gentlemen produced as witnesses then to a multitude of the vulgar or ignoble persons though many and great privileges are and have been in the civill Laws given and allowed to the Honorable Order of Knighthood and that our Kings and common laws have given unto them great respects and privileges which are and have been to these our dreggy and worst of times enjoyed yet it can be no disparagement to that ever to be esteemed Order and Degree to have it affirmed and believed that it hath been from the 21th year of the Reign of King Edward the 1st to this our present century and scarcely slipt out of the memories of aged men no unusuall thing that many of the Knights of the shires and Burgesses elected to be members of the house of Commons have been the Secretaries Stewards Feodaries or domestick Servants Reteyners Tenants by Knights-service or Petit Serjeanty Castle-guard or managers of some part of the Lands and Estates of the Nobility and great men of the Kingdom And as to that which some that are unwilling to Submit to the powers of truth and right reason will be ready to object that in the 3. year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th a Committee of the Lords have come into the House of Commons to confer with them and probably saith Mr Elsing might during the time of that Conference sit with them yet it was but pro hac vice and not constantly or at any other time And when King James in the 7th year of his Reign was pleased to order the Lords and Commons to sit in the Court of Requests the Lords on the right hand by themselves and the Commons on the left they did then sit distinctly as out of their separate houses to be Spectators of the creation of Prince Henry to be Prince of Wales and could be no more an argument for those contrivers who are enforced to pick up any thing that they can imagine may be for their purpose then that of the fatal over-eager prosecution of the late Earle of Strafford at the suit instance of the house of commons upon their unlucky bill of Attainder in Westminster-hall whether his late Majesty afterwards murthered and martyred had from their separate and distinct houses for that only business dislocated and transferred them SECT XXIV What the clause in the Writs for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to come unto the Parliament ad faciendum consentiendum do properly signify and were intended by the said Writs Of Election to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament FOr Assensum dare est probari l. 2. c. de relation Consensus denotat aequalitates sententiarum cogitationis voluntatis And facere duplici modo accipitur aut
quibusdam Magnatibus aliis de Concilio suo super dictis negotiis in brevi specificat eis ibidem plenius exponend tractaturi suumque concilium impensuri ulteriusque facturi quod ibidem de communi concilio assensu contigerit ordinari and that the Sheriff as likewise the Sheriffs of all the other Counties of England were commanded to certify the names of the Merchants sic eligendorum with a severe admonition in the latter end of the said Writ of Summons viz. sciens procerto quod fi dicti Mercatores de discretioribus ditioribus ut praedicitur eligendi ad dictos diem locum non habueris te ab ofsicio tuo amovere teque tanquam expeditionem negotionum nostrorum praedictorum impedieras de impeditione hujusmodi culpabilem invenire absque difficultate aliqua faciemus Teste Edwardo Duce Cornubiae Domino de Cestria filio nostro charissimo Custode Angliae apud Kennington Et Eodem Anno Strangers have been sometimes admitted into the House of Peers after a Summons to be Receivers and Tryers of Petitions but did not sit The Commons at the beginning of every Parliament are sent for out of the House of Commons to come to the Bar of the House of Lords where the Lord Chancellor if he be present or in his absence one of the Lord Chief Justices or an Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and sometimes the Lord Treasurer and in 9. H. 6. Linwood a Doctor of Law in the sickness of a Lord Chancellor declared in the behalf of the King or his Lieutenant the cause at large of the Summons of Parliament commanded them to elect and present their speaker the Writs of Summons making sometimes a short mention thereof and many times none at all In 17th E. 3. the cause of Summons was begun to be declared by the Chancellor but pursued by Sr Bartholomew Burghurst concerning the Kings Actions in France 15. E. 3. The King denied the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to come into the Parliament-House untill he had answered certain Articles objected against him in the Exchequer and then also refused him entrance untill at the last at the intercession of the Lords he was admitted In Anno 16 of his Reign Prince Edward his son Duke of Cornewall and Custos regni with others of the Councell summoned a Parliament in his fathers name to grant him an aid being then in his Wars beyond the Seas The King in the 18th year of his Reign sent his Writs of Summons to a Parliament to treat of the affairs of the Kingdom with these words nobiscum si praesentes fuerimus ibidem seu cum deputandis a nobis si abesse nos contigerit Eodem Anno Writs were issued for the Electing of two Knights for every County without mention of any Citizens Burgesses and in some no manucaptors for the Elected retorned and were to appear at London but before the day appointed come another Writ came to appear at Sarum Eodem Anno The King being offended at the small appearance of the parliament on Monday commanded it to be adjourned untill the next day The Receivers and Tryers being named because the prelates and other grandees were not come on Tuesday the parliament was adjourned untill the Thursday on which day the cause of Summons was declared 20. E. 3. On Fryday the Commons delivered in their petitions which were considered by the Lords upon Saturday Sunday and Monday next following and on that Monday they were Dissolved In the 21st Year of his Reign he declared in his Writs to Summon that parliament that he did call them not to give him Money or Supplies but only to enquire after wrongs done to the people Eodem Anno the Commons having long continued together desire an answer to their Bill leur deliverance Anno 24. E. 3. The King sending his Writs to Elect 2 Knights of every County and 2 Burgesses of every City and Borough caused a Clause to be inserted that none should be placitatores querolarum manutentores aut ex hujusmodi quaestu vincentes In 26. E. 3. the King issued out Writs to the Sheriffs of every County in England to elect one Knight for every County to come to the parliament and sent his Writs to the Mayors and Bailiffs of Burgess Towns not to the Sheriffs as at other time to retorn 1 Citizen for every City and 1 Burgess for every Borough except London whose Sheriffs were commanded to Elect 2 Citizens giving the reason why no more then 1 for other places ut Homines ab ista occupatione Audumpnalo quo nirus possimus retrahomus Anno 27. E. 3. Sent hrs Writs to the Sheriff to Elect de assensu Com. only 1 Knight and to the Sheriffs of London the Mayor and Bayliffs of all other Boroughs that used to send Burgesses to Parliament to Elect and retorn 2 Citizens and Burgesses apiece for the Statute of the Staple made in the same year ca. 3. hath these words viz. Whereas good deliberation had with the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and great men of the Country that is to say of every County one for all the Countys and of the Commons of Cities and Boroughs Anno 28. E. 3. the cause of Summons was first declared before the names of the Receivers and Tryers were published Eodem Anno the King issued his Writs to all the Sheriffs of England to cause 2 Knights of every Shire to come to the Parliament at Lincoln to confirm the perambulation of the Forrests and particularly enjoyned to Summon the Knights Elected the last Parliament but if dead or unable to come to Elect others in their places and the Sheriff for Oxford and Barkshire receiving only a mandate to elect Knights for Oxfordshire did notwithstanding retorn two for Berkshire in this manner Et quia Com. Berks. est in ballia mea licet perambulatio in eodem facta fuit observata pro eo quod in isto brevi continetur quod colloquium in Parliamento tractandum erit Super aliis negotiis praefatum Regem tangentibus Ideo gratis elegerunt duos milites quorum nomina c. Anno 29. E. 3. the Chief Justice declared that the Kings pleasure was that the Cause of Summons should be declared by Mounsieur Walter de Manny and so it was yet the Chief Justice managed the Parliament business in the House of Peers as Speaker for presently after Mounsieur de Manny's discourse he called the Commons to advise thereof and make ready their Petitions In the 34 year of his Reign sent his Writs to all the Sheriffs to cause to appear in Parliament all Collectors of the Tenths and Fifteenths granted to him in Parliament for paying his Forces by Land and Sea for the Kingdoms defence to be restored again to the payers in case no such expences should be made and all Arrayers of Souldiers to give an account of all Moneys received and disbursed
recorded but the manner and form of the agreement and by whom in particular is most usually omitted yet necessary to be understood for such was the practice and usage of that age In cases which require no new Law those Acts were seldom entred it was thought sufficient if they were on the file prout Fitz Herberts Abridg. tit Parliament Anno 33. H. 6. n. 17. Neither did those necessarily require the Common Assent of Parliament for the Petitions granted Authoritate Parliamenti do not prove the Common Assent unless they were exhibited by the Commons otherwise they were such only as were delivered to the Receivers of Petitions appointed by the King at the beginning of every Parliament and they were answered by the Tryers then also appointed for the same amongst whom none of the House of Commons were ever appointed and those answers or the matters themselves being heard before the Lords in Parliament as Petitions of great weight and difficulty alwaies were for such alwaies had the additions of Authoritate Parliamenti the first of them beginning tempore Richardi 2. And whether those words be added or omitted yet such Answers ever did and will bind so as they be not contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Land There needed no publication of Ordinances touching the Chancery when the Chancellor was present nor concerning the Courts of Justice when the Judges were present in Parliament neither touching the grievances of the Kings Ministers and other Officers for some of them were ever present in Parliament And the Commons were so careful to have their Parliament Rolls engrossed as in 2d Henry 4. n. 26. divers days before the end of the Parliament they did by their Speaker beseech the King that the business done and to be done in this Parliament be enacted and engrossed before the departure of the Justices whilst they have them in their memory Unto which it was answered that the Clerk of the Parliament should do his endeavour to enact and engross the Substance of the Parliament by advice of the Justices and after shew it to the King and Lords in Parliament to have their advice By which it appeareth that the Parliament Roll was not drawn up by the Clerk alone ex officio but with the advice of the Justices and although it was here said that it should be afterwards shewed unto the King and Lords to be approved of by them yet it is not to be thought that the King and Lords did usually examine the same but the Judges advice was usually had therein how else could the Commons require the same to be ingrossed whilst it remained in the Judges memory The Parliament Roll of 11. E. 3. For the creation of his Son Prince Edward Duke of Cornwal and annexing Lands thereunto is lost But in Anno 5. H. 4. The Commons exhibiting their Bill in Parliament in the behalf of the Prince to be made Duke of Cornwal did recite that grant of King E. 3. to have been made by the Kings Letters Patents and pray that the Lands which were annexed might not be aliened and that which had been aliened reseised Annis 7. 8. H. 4. n. 65. The Speaker in the name of the Commons prayed the King and the Lords in Parliament that certain of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whom it pleased them to appoint and a certain number of the Commons whose names he had written in a Schedule or any 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. or 6. of them might be at the Enacting and Ingrossing of the Rolls of Parliament and that his Prayer and Petition might be enacted of Record in the Roll of Parliament which request the King graciously assented unto Anno 1. H. 4. n. 45. The Commons agreed that the King might moderate the Statute against Provisors Anno 2. H. 4. n. 45. They complain to the King that the same was otherwise entred in the Parliament Roll than was agreed on by them and that it might be examined which the King granted but upon Protestation that it should not be drawn into Example Whereupon the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Justices and Councellors of the King being severally examined in full Parliament in the presence of the King and all the Commons testified that the said moderation was duly and justly entred and Enacted in the Parliament Roll in manner as it was spoken and agreed on by the said Lords and Commons the which entring and enacting so made the King remembred to be well and truly done as it was agreed on in the last Parliament So careful were the Commons of the Parliament Rolls the only Treasury of those publick Ordinances and yet never petitioned touching the Roll of Statutes nor to be present when they were made for they knew full well that that did belong meerly to the King and his Councel But only did put his Majesty in mind in Anno 2. H. 5. n. 10. That the Statute ought not to be drawn up contrary to the meaning of the Petitions which were then granted and afterwards to prevent that inconvenience they themselves framed their Bills in form of a Statute which order continueth to this day Anno 12. E. 2. The Petition of Hugh Audly and Margery his Wife concerning the Lands of the Earl of Cornwal exemplified was exhibited in the Parliament at York at Michaelmas and answered in the next Parliament at Easter following Some had Writs out of the Chancery for the setling and confirming of what was granted to them by Parliament prout Anno 16. R. 2. For livery to be made to Awbrey de Vere of the Lands entailed unto him The Act of Parliament of 28 E. 1. being granted and published with a saving to the Right and Praerogative of the Crown was afterwards upon the murmuring of some of the Lords and Commons against that Proviso republished without it Statutes were not Enrolled until the King had allowed thereof and commanded it to be ingrossed sealed and kept Things perpetual were made into a Statute and temporary into an Ordinance or signified by Letters Patents In the Parliament of 15 E. 3. A Statute was in a manner extorted from that glorious King and a special Committee appointed to pen it against which the Kings Councel protested and the King by his Proclamation or Declaration revoked the same for that he assented not but dissimuled which remains upon record to this day to that Kings great dishonor if not rightly understood Which that great Attorney General Mr. Noy undertook to clear in this manner The Commons having granted the year before a very large Subsidy to the King toward the French Wars to be paid in two years under divers conditions and the Statute drawn up by a special Committee of Lords and Commons who took great care that the King should be duly answered the said grant and the Subjects enjoy his Majesties graces in those conditions expressed and the King going into France with full confidence to receive the said money accordingly but
House of Commons in Parliament being in his coming to Parliament beaten and wounded by one John Savage the Record declareth that videtur cur quod non est necesse quod Inquiratur per patriam quae dampna praedictus Richardus Chedder qui venit ad Parliamentum in Comitiva c. Et verberatus vulneratus fuit per Johannem Savage sustinuit occasione verberationis set magis cadit in discretionem Justic Ideo per discretionem cur consideratum est quod dictus Richardus recuperet dampna sua ad centum marc similiter centum marc And though he was a Servant to a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament was committed to the Marshal quousque sinem faciat cum Domino Rege per minatoriis datis Juratoribus appunctuat ad inquirend And if there had been any Priviledge due to the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament besides and other than that which their Speakers do at their admittance by our Kings and Princes claim in their behalf being no more than freedom of Access to their Persons and from arrest of their Persons and moenial Servants ever since or in the 22 year of the Raign of King Edward the first for in the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry the third when that King was a Prisoner to Simon Montfort and his Partner Rebels those few that were sent as Members of that not to be called a Parliament claimed not any Priviledges from the beginning of our verily long lasting Monarchy until that their distempered and unhappy framed Writ for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to come to Parliament in 49 H. 3. nor can it be made appear that any of the Commons were before ever Elected to come as Members of Parliament the Writs ex gratia Regis allowed for the Levying of their Wages being no Priviledge given by the King but rather the Gift and Wages of the Counties and Places that Elected them And the Priviledges of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal besides those of the Earls and higher Degrees of the Nobility whose Patents and Charters about the Raign of King Richard the 2d gave them their Priviledges of having vocem locum sedem in Parliamento concilio generali Regis and before had their Titles of Earls by a Charter of the third penny or part of the Fines and Amerciaments of the County of Oxford as the Creation of Alberick de vere Earl of Oxford by King Henry the 2d hath demonstrated and some Authentick Historians have told us that King John made two Earls per Investituram cincturae gladii who waited upon him immediately after as he sate at dinner gladiis cincti and by reason of the Grandeur and Honour of their Estates and Priviledge to advise their King needed no protection from Arrests and their Ladies and Dowagers do enjoy the like Priviedges and when they should in extraordinary affairs be summoned to Parliament to be advised withal by our Kings whereunto when they were travelling through any of his Forrests they might kill a Deer so as they or any of them gave some of the Keepers notice thereof by blowing of an Horn and leaving a piece thereof hanging upon a Tree A Baron may speak twice to a Bill in Parliament in one day when a Member of the House of Commons can but once they neither need or choose any Speaker for the Chancellor or the Keeper of the Kings great Seal of England is the only Speaker of that House where the King doth not do it himself or commissionates some other to officiate in the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keepers place or time of sickness Every Baron or other Lord of Parliament in any Action where the Defendant pleadeth he is no Baron it shall not be tryed at the Common Law or by Jury nor by Witnesses but by Record their Bodies shall not be arrested and neither Capias or Exigent shall be awarded against them and their bodies are not subject to torture in causa laesae Majestatis Are not to be sworn in Assises Juries or Inquests if any Servant of the King in Checque Roll compass the Death of a Baron or any of the Kings Privy Councel it is Felony in any Action against a Baron in the Court of Common Pleas or any of the Courts of Justice two Knights are to be impannelled of the Jury he shall have a day of grace shall not be tryed in cases of Treason or Felony or misprision of Treason but by their Peers and such as are of the Nobility who are not sworn but give their verdict only upon their honour super fidem ligeantiam domino Regi debitam and by an Act of Parliament made by Queen Elizabeth are exempt from the taking of the Oath of Supremacy which the Members of the House of Commons are ordained to take before their admittance the Writs of Summons to a Parliament are directed only to themselves who are not Elected as the Members of the House of Commons who are but as the Attorneys and Procurators for those that sent them ad faciendum consentiendum to do and obey what the Lords shall ordain who sub fide ligeancia Domino Regi debita do represent only for themselves and the cause saith Sir Edward Coke of the Kings giving the Nobility so many great Priviledges is because all Honour and Nobility is derived from the King who is the true fountain of Honour and Honours the Nobility also two was as 1. Ad consulendum and anciently gives them Robes 2dly A Sword Ad defendendum Regem Regnum and the Oath of Allegiance is and ought to be imprinted in the heart of every Subject scil Ego verus fidelis ero veritatem praestabo Domino Regi de vita membro de terreno honore vivendum moriendum contra omnes gentes c. Et si cognoscam aut audiam de aliquo damno aut malo quod domino Regi evenire poterit revelabo c. And their Wives and Dowagers enjoy the same Priviledges in the time of Parliament and without and their Sons and Daughters a praecedency which those of the House of Commons have not the Lords can in case of Absence by the Kings License make their proxy but the Members of the House of Commons cannot the Lords at any conference with the Members of the House of Commons do sit covered but the Commons do all the while stand uncovered the Lords have a certain number of Chaplains in time of Parliament and with a Priviledge of enjoying more than one Benefice but the Members of the House of Commons none the Lords in the case of breach of Priviledge by arresting any of their Moenial Servants in the time of Parliament do by their own order punish the offenders which the House of Commons should not without the assistance of the King by his Writ out of his Court of Chancery the Lords and some others
unarbitrary in their procedures is so always ready to succour the Complaints of People as it never willingly makes it self to be the cause of it And cannot misrepresent the House of Peers to the King and his People in the Case of Mr. Fitz Harris or any others when that honourable Assembly takes so much care as it doth to repress Arbitrary Power and doth all it can to protect the whole Nation from it and many of the House of Commons Impeachments have been disallowed by the King and his House of Peers in Parliament without any ground or cause of fear of Arbitrary Power which can no where be so mischievously placed as in the giddy multitude whose Impeachments would be worse than the Ostracisme at Athens and so often overturn and tire all the wise men and good men in the Nation as there would be none but such as deserve not to be so stiled to manage the Affairs of the Government subordinate to their King and Soveraign To all which may be added if the former Presidents cited to assert the Kings Power of Pardoning as well after an Impeachment made by the Commons in Parliament as before and after an Impeachment made by the Commons and received by the Lords in Parliament or made both by the Lords and Commons in Parliament be not not sufficient that of Hugh le Despenser Son of Hugh le Despenser the younger a Lord of a great Estate which is thus entred in the Parliament Roll of the fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the Third ought surely to satisfie that the Laws and reasonable Customs of England will warrant it Anno 5 E. 3. Sir Eubule le Strange and eleven other Mainprisers being to bring forth the Body of Hugh the Son of Hugh le Despenser the younger saith the Record A respondre au prochein Parlement de ester au droit affaire ce de liu en conseil soit ordine mesuerent le Corps le dit Hugh devant nostre Seigneur le Roi Countes Barons autres Grantz en mesme le Parlement monstrent les L'res Patents du Roi de Pardon al dit Hugh forisfacturam vite membrorum sectam pacis homicidia roborias Felonias omnes transgressiones c. Dated 20 Martii anno primo Regni sui Et priant a n're Seigneur le Roi quil le vousist delivrer de las Mainprise faire audit Hugh sa grace n're Seigneur le Roi eiant regard a ses dites L'res voilant uttroier a la Priere le dit Mons'r Eble autres Main pernors avant dit auxint de les Prelatz qui prierent molt especialment pur lui si ad comande de sa grace sa delivrance Et voet que ses Menpernors avant ditz chescun d'eux soient dischargez de leur Mainprise auxint le dit Hugh soit quit delivrers de Prisone de garde yssint si ho'me trove cause devors lui autre nest uncore trove quil estoise au droit And the English Translator or Abridger of the Parliament Records hath observed that the old usage was that when any Person being in the Kings displeasure was thereof acquitted by Tryal or Pardon yet notwithstanding he was to put in twelve of his Peers to be his Sureties for his good Behaviour at the Kings pleasure And may be accompanied by the Case of Richard Earl of Arundel in the 22 year of the Raign of King Richard the Second being Appealed by the Lords Appellant and they requiring the King that such Persons Appealed that were under Arrest might come to their Tryal it was commanded to Ralph Lord Nevil Constable of the Tower of London to bring forth the said Richard Earl of Arundel then in his custody whom the said Constable brought into the Parliament at which time the Lords Appellants came also in their proper Persons To the which Earl the Duke of Lancaster who was then hatching the Treason which afterwards in Storms of State and Blood came to effect against the King by the Kings Coommandment and Assent of the Lords declared the whole circumstances after the reading and declaring whereof the Earl of Arundel who in Anno 11 of that Kings Raign had been one of the Appellants together with Henry Earl of Derby Son of the said Duke of Lancaster and afterwards the usurping King Henry the Fourth against Robert de Vere Duke of Ireland and Earl of Oxford and some other Ministers of State under King Richard the Second alledged that he had one Pardon granted in the Eleventh year of the Raign of King Richard the Second and another Pardon granted but six years before that present time And prays that they might be allowed To which the Duke answered that for as much as they were unlawfully made the present Parliament had revoked them And the said Earl therefore was willed to say further for himself at his peril whereupon Sir Walter Clopton Chief Justice by the Kings Commandment declared to the said Earl that if he said no other thing the Law would adjudge him guilty of all the Actions against him The which Earl notwithstanding would say no other thing but required allowance of his Pardons And thereupon the Lords Appellant in their proper Persons desired that Judgment might be given against the said Earl as Convict of the Treason aforesaid Whereupon the Duke of Lancaster by the Assent of the King Bishops and Lords adjudged the said Earl to be Convict of all the Articles aforesaid and thereby a Traytor to the King and Realm and that he should be hanged drawn and quartered and forfeit all his Lands in Fee or Fee-tail as he had the nineteenth day of September in the tenth year of the Kings Raign together with all his Goods and Chattels But for that the said Earl was come of noble Blood and House the King pardoned the hanging drawing and quartering and granted that he should be beheaded which was done accordingly But Anno 1 Hen. 4. the Commons do pray the reversal of that Judgment given against him and restoration of Thomas the Son and Heir of the said Richard Earl of Arundel Unto which the King answered he hath shewed favour to Thomas now Earl and to others as doth appear The Commons do notwithstanding pray that the Records touching the Inheritance of the said Richard Earl of Arundel late imbezelled may be searched for and restored Unto which was answered the King willeth And their noble Predecessors in that Honourable House of Peers the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament long before that videlicet in the fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the Third made no scruple or moat point or question in Law whether the power of pardoning was valid and solely in the King after an Impeachment of the Lords in Parliament when in the Case of Edmond Mortimer the Son of Roger Mortimer Earl of March a Peer of great Nobility and Estate the
Parliament and that learned and pacifique Prince having been much tempted thereunto in his great want of Money by an offer of 200000 l. per annum which was more than the whole profits of the Excise upon Ale Beer Cider Coffee c. All the Salaries Cheats Charges and Allowances Filchings Lurches and False Accompis deducted could or did amount unto that kind of Revenue being since his late Majesties death to be no more than a moyety thereof And these Tenures in Capite were so inherent in the Crown of England as divers of the learned Judges of England in their Arguments in the Exchequer-Chamber in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr made no Scruple to assert that the Tenures in Capite were of so high a nature that they could not be taken away by any Act of Parliament And to take away from our Kings and Princes the love and honour of the people as well as they had done the Tenures in Capite the Nerves and Sinews of our Monarchick Government it was the especial work and design of those Enemies of our former happiness to take away also the Honour of his Crown and Hospitality and could not think they had done all their work until they had thrown the Pourveyance into the bargain of the Tenures in Capite which nothing but the value of the Kingdom it self could make an Equivalent recompence or purchase and the unhappy contrivers thereof might have put a better value upon it when in Michaelmas Term in the third year of the Raign of King James the first all the Judges of England did certify that it was a Praerogative of the King at the Common Law and that all the Statutes which have been made to correct abuses in the Purveyances took not away the Purveyances but confirmed them Et qui tollit Iniquitatem firmat proprietatem confirmat usum And all those mischiefs done by one that unhappily might have taken more heed of an Assembly which some flatteringly called the Collected Wisdom of the Nation when he could not well esteem them so to be when by Fudling Drinking Bribing and all the base Cheats imaginable they had procured themselves to be made Members of that much miscalled Parliament And yet after his late Majesties miraculous restoration being advanced unto great preferments and at the last a Grand Minister of State did so think well of his own doings as he publickly at the Table of Sir Harbottle Grimston Master of the Rolls in Chancery-Lane in the hearing of many worthy persons Sir Nicholas Strode John Hern Esquire and others one of them yet living ready to testify it what a most especial Service he had done for the King and Kingdom when he was a Member in Parliament and known to be the Kings Sollicitor General by a motion without any the Kings privity or direction to dissolve and destroy the Tenures in Capite and accept a Recompence for them which Serjeant Glyn a former Grand Rebel to his Majesty and after his Restauration crept in as the most of them did and got to be Members of Parliament was ready to assist by the offer of a Recompence by an Excise upon Ale Beer Sider and Coffee a Limb of that Dutch Devil which they had made use of in their Rebellion and time of his late Majesties and now Majesties persecution At which the Company standing amazed and Sir Nicholas Strode said that he should never have fought for the late blessed Martyr or come to his setting up his Standard at Nottingham if he could have foreseen it the most of the Nation at that time and almost ever since verily believing that it had been the folly and evil doing of Sir Edward Hyde the late Lord Chancellor afterwards Earl of Clarendon and therefore was sufficiently railed upon Cursed and Banned for it and yet he was so Faultless and Innocent therein as it can be witnessed by the now Earl of Clarendon his Son Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Lord privy Seal in the Kingdom of England that this overbold presumptuous motion of a Servant and Councel at Law of that unfortunate weather-beaten Prince not being at all informed how or by whom the project came to be first hatched or moved his late Majesty calling together his privy Councel and advising upon that most unhappy proposition wherein the Rebel Parliament in February 1647. had made some Vote Act or Ordinance against the aforesaid Tenures under the notion of the Court of Wards being but two years before his Royal Fathers Murther and Oliver Cromwel had made some Act of his Worships miscalled Parliament some few years after as it behoved for the destruction of those Tenures in Capite when he intended as much as he could to take away the Kingship and Monarchy until he could make himself fit to govern a foolish besotted rebellious people they having before not at all made any mention or request to have the said Court of Wards put down or the Tenures in Capite by their High and mighty 19 Propositions nor were any complaints of grievances made thereby nor in all our Parliament Records or Journals or Historians since or before the Raigns of King Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror doth there appear to have been any Petitions in Parliament against them neither in that as it were intended deposing Remonstrance of the 15th of December 1641. wherein nothing was omitted that might injure or calumniate per fas aut nefas the Kings Authority or Government there appears to have been nothing against either the Tenures in Capite or Court of Wards And it can be proved that the Royal Martyr during his imprisonment in the Isle of Wight had designed that if ever he came again to his Rights he would upon all his Crown or Chequer Leases reserve some military Services notwithstanding all which his late Majesties great want of present Money and some setled Revenue perswaded him to hearken more than otherwise his own great Judgment would have done The Earl of Radnor was much against their dissolution alledging that the constitution it self was good and was not in it self to be cast away by any Male-administration Sir Geffery Palmer was very much for the preservation of the Tenures and so were many other and the Lord Chancellor Clarendon very much and so greatly as he called to the said Sollicitor General and said will you also put down the Pourveyances saying with some passion by God we seem to be against the late Commonwealth and yet are acting for it And his late Majesty was so unwillingly drawn to be in Love with that ever to be deplored Parliament contrivance to decapitate the Monarchy and not only that but Ireland and render all the Inferiour part thereof to be in a paralitique or dead palsical over-benummed in its Members as before that Act passed he sent for one Mr. Darnel an ancient and experienced Clerk and Attorney in the Court of Wards and Liveries to propose some expedient for the Regulation of
Duty and Allegiance they are obliged to attend their Soveraign and come to the General Consult of a Parliament so is it to be considered that the Speculator and Prorector of our Kingdom and Nation under God just allowances being always to be made of natural rests and refreshments and competent care of health cannot be Master if he could of much time whilst he is to encourage and maintain the Publick Good of his People and Guard them from any evils or inconveniences which do or might assail them in his care and distribution of Justice in all the complaints and Petitions of a numerous and mighty People in the issuing out of Writs Edicts and Proclamations which do every day and hour in the year almost imploy his Ministers of State and substituted in their several stations and qualifications Sundays and the grand Festivals in every year not always escaping and the not to be expressed almost perpetual cares of a Kingly and Monarchick Government largely attested by the many Patent Charter and Clause Rolls brevia Regis Rescripts Commissions Certioraris Writs of ad quod dampnum Inquisitions cum multis aliis in the Raigns of our Kings and Queens now lodged and preserved in the Tower of London the Exchequer and the Treasures thereof with the Records of the other Courts with what else could be rescued from the ravage of War and Time together with the Memorials of their Secretaries of State Privy Councel Table Books referrences and the returns thereof hearings of causes complaints and orders and redresses thereof with a necessary Inspection and Survey in and of all the affairs and conditions of his people and their well or ill being when the cares of government were so accompted to be an heavy burden for Moses in his conduct of an affrighted and oppressed people of Israel driven out of Egypt with six hundred thousand men on foot besides Women and Children with their Flocks and Herds in their travelling and unsetled condition through the wilderness towards their hopes in the Promised Land of Canaan with murmuring enough in the hearing and determining of their Suits and Complaints one against another raised in Jethro his Father-in-Law such a compassion of his Labour and Toil therein as he told him he would surely wear away both himself and the People and therefore Councelled him only to reserve hard matters unto himself and appoint out of the People able Men such as fear God and love the Truth hating Covetousness to Judge the People in smaller matters Wherein they that shall rightly consider the cares of Kings and Princes and the trouble of preserving and doing good to a far greater number of People not seldom as unto too many against their Wills may think themselves to be happy under the Protection of Gods Vicegerent and bound to obey with cheerfulness his Providence therein and that it was never intended by our less murmuring and more grateful Ancestors to make perpetual extraordinaries or a standing Court of Parliament which could not fall within the Reason Necessity or Practise of any good or rational Government and if it could as it never can must of necessity tear in pieces our happy best Established Monarchy and Sacrificing it to an inexorable misery leave our Posterities to be tossed and driven in and upon the Waters of Strife Self-interest and Vain Imaginations and in the fear without any cause of an Arbitrary Power of our Kings never like to happen over-hastily and madly run into the Arbitrary Power of a multitude or some prevailing Party of plundering and pretending Reforms amongst them many of which is and will be the worst of all Arbitraries of a Rude Ignorant Unreasonable and Senseless multitude with the greatest certainties of miseries as fatally as inevitably likely to happen §. 32. That Parliaments or great Councels de quibusdam arduis concerniug the defence of the Kingdom and Church of England neither were or can be fixed to be once in every year or oftner they being alwaies understood and believed to be by the Laws and ancient and reasonable Customs of England ad libitum Regis who by our Laws Right Reason and all our Records and Annals is and should be the only watchman of our Israel and the only Judge of the necessity times and occasion of summoning Parliaments FOR notwithstanding that by an Act of Parliament made in the 4th year of the Raign of King Edward 3. It was accorded that a Parliament should be holden once in every year and more often if need be And in an other Act of Parliament made in the 36th year of the Raign of the aforesaid King Edward it is said that for the maintenance of the Articles and Statutes made in the said Parliament of the 36th and redress of divers mischiefs and grievances which dayly happen a Parliament shall be holden as at other times was appointed by a Statute yet the latter Act of Parliament was but with reference to the former and that imparted no more than that a Parliament shall be holden once in every year and more often if need be and howsoever that in the 50th year of the Raign of that King the Commons renewed their petition that a Parliament might be holden that Knights of the Parliament might be chosen by the whole Counties and that the Sheriffs might likewise be without brocage in Court the King only answered to the Parliament there are Statutes made therefore to the Sheriffs there is answer made to the Knights it is agreed that they shall be chosen by common consent of every County and in Anno Primo R. 2. petitioned the King that a Parliament might be yearly holden in a convenient place to redress delays in Suits and to end such Cafes as the Judges doubt of which the Consequences after will shew were only to be at the pleasure and will of the King as his prudence care and necessity of himself and the publick good should necessarily advise if the true Interpretation of both those Acts of Parliament could as it never can bear any other signification for although that which next followed that Act of Parliament made in the 4th year of the Raign of that King was in the next year after yet that which succeeded that was in Anno 6 and not printed For the Parliament was for a few days Adjourned and being after holden at York was for a short time likewise Prorogued and afterwards the Assembly being not come was Adjourned until the 5th of St. Hillary next following at York and from thence again to a Reassembly at the same place at the end of which Re-assembly the Commons had License to depart and the Lords were commanded to attend him the next day at which time the Parliament was Dissolved The Duke of Cornwal the Kings Eldest Son as Guardian of England by the Kings Letters Patents held the Parliament at Westminster and a memorandum made to Summon the Parliament at the 5th of St. Hillary
next following And the Commons upon the Kings demand of an Aid alledge that they cannot agree thereunto without further conference with their Countries pray a respite of time until they return from thence For that sundry of the Lords and Commons were not come the Parliament was Adjourned for some few days In regard the Commons had so long continued at their great costs and expences they desire Answer of their Bills and a deliverance Lionel Duke of Clarence the Kings Son held the Parliament The Parliament for certain causes was Adjourned until Monday next after the Feast of St. Edmond the Martyr After the Petitions of the Commons not before Answered were read and answered before the King Lords and Commons the King Licensed the Commons to depart and the Parliament ended And although in a Parliament holden in Anno 4. E. 3. ca. 14. It is accorded that a Parliament shall be holden every year and more often if need be yet in Anno 5. there being one there ensued none after until 9. in 10. there was one from thence until 14. none in 15. another after which none until 18. after which none until 20. thence none until 23. none after until 25. thence none until 27. and in that of 25. were 6. several Sessions wherein several Acts of Parliament were made in Annis 28. 29. Parliaments were holden but none afterwards until 31. thence none until 33. thence every year until 36. In which an Act was made that for maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes in the said 36 years ordained and redress of divers mischiefs and grievances which may happen a Parliament shall be holden every year as another time was ordained by a Statute in 4 E. 3. cap. 14. in 37. 38. Parliaments were holden from thence none until 45. another in 47. another in 50. In Annis 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. none in 8 9 10 11. and in every year after during his Raign a Parliament 1 2. Parliament in one year in 2. a Parliament in 3. one in 4 5 6. one in 7. none in 8. one in 9. one in 10. none in 11. one in 12. none and in 13. one 1 2 3 4 5. Parliaments none in 6. but in 7 8. 9. were Parliaments 1 2 3 4. were Parliaments but none in 5. 7. in 10 11. Parliaments in 12. 13. none in 14 15. were Parliaments in 16 17. none in 18. one in 19. none in 21. 22. none in 23. a Parliament in 24. none a Parliament in 25 in 26. none in 27 28 29. were Parliaments in 30. none in 31. one in 32 none in 33 one 1. one in 2. none in 3. 4. were Parliaments in 5. 6. none in 7. 8. Parliaments in 9 10. 11. none in 12. one in 13. none in 14. one in 15 16. none in 17. one but in 18 19 20 21 none in 22. one But 1 Parliament though he lived a few years after In some part of whose Raign many of the Acts of Parliament being not to be found the first that appears amongst the Printed Acts of Parliament was in the 3. year of his Raign 2 Parliaments were held in that year and a 3. in the 4th year of his Raign none in the 5. 6. but one in the 7th and no more until the 11th one in the 12th and no more until 19. 1. And thence none until the 3. and after every year a Parliament until the 8th year of his Raign In which the like misfortune happened unto the Parliament Rolls for many years as it did in the Raign of his Father King Henry the 7th in 14 15. there appeareth to have been an Act of Parliament and from thence no more until the 21. and thence a Parliament in every year until 30. and in that year none but in 31. and thence every year a Parliament until 36. wherein was no Parliament but in 37. one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. A Parliament in every year 1. Mar. 2. Sessions 1. 2. Philippi Mar. 3 4. 5. A Parliament was in the first year of her Raign and from thence none until 6. and thence none until 8. from whence none until 13. thence to 15. and afterwards none until 18. and from thence none until 23. thence none until 27. none in 28. and but one in 29. none in 30. one in 31. thence none until 35. thence none until 39. thence none until 43. 1. one in 2. none Parliaments in 3 4. none in 5. 6. from 7. none until 18. thence none until 21. In Primo Caroli Regis 1. in 2. none in 3. 4. another No complaints being in those Internals of Parliament made for want thereof and that blessed Martyr having granted to the great inconveniences of his Regality and necessaries of his Monarchicque more than was fit for his Subjects to ask which was dearly after paid for after by many a suffering Loyal Family in the late long Rebellion did in the granting of the Act of Parliament the 16th day of November 1640. for a Triennial Parliament to be holden in every 3d. year declare unto them in these words viz. My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons you may remember when both Houses were with me at the Banqueting House at Whitehall I did declare unto you two Rocks I wished you to eschew this is the one of them and of that consequence that I think never Bill passed here in this House of more favour to the Subjects than this is and if the other Rock be as happily passed over as this shall be at this time I do not know what you can ask for ought I can see at this time that I can make any question to yield unto therefore I mention this to shew unto you the sense that I have of this Bill and obligation as I may say that you have to me for it for hitherto to speak freely I have had no great incouragement to do it if I should look to the outward face of your actions or proceedings and not to the inward intentions of your hearts I might make question of doing it Hitherto you have gone on in that which concerns your selves to amend and yet those things that meerly concern the strength of this Kingdom neither for the State nor my own particular This I mention not to reproach you but to shew you the State of things as they are you have taken the Government almost in pieces and I may say it is almost off the hinges A Skilful Watch-maker to make clean his Watch he will take it asunder and when it is put together it will go the better so that he leave not forth then one pin in it Now as I have done all this on my part you know what to do on your parts and I hope you shall see clearly
words following in a Parenthesis viz. but never intended to have any share in the government And they that heretofore did take it for an especial honour to wear many of the Peers and Nobilities Liveries and glad to be reteyners to them were so modest as to be unwilling to assume the Title of an Estate in Parliament when in Parliament conferences passing of Bills Messages or other occasions the House of Peers sate covered that third Estate if it could be so called stood and are to stand uncovered And Mr. Pryn one of their greatest Champions that did more than he should to magnify their Customs and Priviledges was at length constrained to acknowledge that in all the Parliaments of King Edward the third Richard the second Henry the fourth fifth and sixth Edward the fourth and Richard the third the Commons in Parliament never claimed nor exercised an such Titles or Jurisdictions as of late years have been usurped by them or given unto who never until they ran mad with Rebellion who never presumed or pretended to make Print or Publish any Act Ordinance or order whatsoever relating to the People or their own Members without the King and Lords Assent and Concurrence never attempted to impose any Tax Tallage Charge Excise or Duty upon the people without the King and Lords consent never adventured to appoint any Committee or subcommittee to hear and determine any particular business or complaint without the report thereof to the whole House of Commons without the privity or Assent of the House by way of transmission or impeachment to their superior Authority and Judicature of the House of Peers never attached fined imprisoned or censured any person by their own authority without the Lords as they have hundreds of late years done And that very famous Ancient and Great Republick of Venice Crowning their Doge with an Imaginary Crown for Venice and two other real and very Crowns the one for Cyprus and the other for Candy both Kingdoms revera in their actual possession yet as the lesser in the greater bound up and captivated under a strange diversity of Forms and Cantons hath not the Priviledge to read a Letter without the Privity or overlooking of the grand Consiglio or Venetian Nobility hath besides their many great Varieties and Fragments of Magistracy Offices and Parts of Governments cut into as many Parcels as they can to give every one as much Relish and hopes as their largely extended dominions can afford are not without at the first 150 since augmented into the number of 3000 of those which they stile Nobility and makes a principal part of the first quality or concern in their government as our Bishops and Lords Temporal the former being Barons as much as the latter for their lives although not as the latter in Fee or Fee-Tail and amongst the many particles or pieces of their mangled government can allow their Doge to be the Superior and more than Co-ordinate with all or any of the Avogardoit di Communite the Pregadi that are to guide their chief affairs of Estate and consist of 120 Noblemen some whereof have their rights of the Lottery or Balloting Box their greatest Councel consists of the Doge Consiglieri the Consiglio di dioci the third Consigliera de bassa the three Lords of the Raggioni Vecchio the three Lords of the Raggioni Nuevo the Cattaveri or the Inquisitors of truth the two Censori the three Provisori delli dieci Savii or special wisemen and that which should be the wonder the Colledge of the Savii are to have no Vote in the Pregadi and they of the Pregadi can take no resolution except there be in it four Consiglieri or at least 60 of the Nobility be of the Quorum or that they do ordinarily give order to their Embassadors in all parts of the World whither they have been sent to Register and give an accompt to their State or Senate or whatever they can be called of the the several forms of government in other Nations and Kingdoms and yet omitting the Feudal the best of all governments happily experimented in the most of their Neighbour Nations and Kingdoms so pertinatiously as they do and have such an hotch potch or Gallimaufry of mixtures as we say in England as if they were again to be dislocated or taken in pieces that great republick planted betwixt the two great Empires of the West and East would in all probability be on a sudden in as great misery distress and confusion or greater than it was when they fled from the Ravage and Fury of the Huns and Vandals into the Arms and Bosom of the Gulf of the Adriatique Sea and Mr. Selden hath informed us that in England in the Saxons time and long after the middle Thanes and the Valuasers were not honorary as the greater Thegnes or Barons were And it may be worthy our observation that although Mr. Pryn in his careful recapitulation before mentioned of the Lords Spiritual the Bishops and the Earls and Barons the Lords Temporal excluding the Commons until after th 49th year of the Raign of King Henry 3. doth altogether negatively conclude that there were no Commons then present yet when he comes to rectify as he calleth it the mistakes of the abridger doth in Anno 5. E. 3. relate that the Estates in full Parliament do agree that they shall not retain sustain or avow any Felons or Breakers of Houses which the King having commanded before is truly and properly to be understood of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal And in another place of the said record mentioneth that the whole Estate prayed the King to be gracious unto Edward the Son of Roger Mortimer Earl of March which could not inforce the King to be one of the Estates or that there were any other or more Estates than the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Anno 6. E. 3. were Proclaimed the Articles agreed in the last Parliament and 1 2 3. in another Parliament intended to be at York it is said that most of the Estates were absent Sir Jeffry le Scroop by the Kings Command shewed the cause of summoning the Parliament but for that most of the Estates were absent which might consist only of Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the King ordained new Writs of Summons to be issued In a reassembly at York in the same year Articles of the last Parliament were proclaimed by the Steward and Marshal of the King and the Commons not then said Estates had license to depart and the Lords commanded to attend until the next day at which time the Parliament was dissolved In Anno 8. E. 3. It was petitioned that no pardons be granted unto outlawed persons by any Suggestions or means but only by Parliament To which the King answered the Statutes made shall be observed That all men may have their Writs out of the Chancry paying nothing but the fees for the Seals without any fine
Durham Earls of Northampton Arundel Warwick Oxford Suffolk and Hugh le Despenser Lord of Glamorgan to the whole so misnamed Estate of Parliament when the King could not be one of them not at all being present purporting that whereas the King at his Arrival at Hoges in Normandy had made his Eldest Son the Prince of Wales Knight he ought to have of the Realm forty Shillings for every Knights Fee which they all granted and took Order for the speedy levying thereof 25 E. 3. Sir John Matravers pardon was confirmed by the whole missettled Estates whereof the King could not be accompted any of them for he granted the pardon 28 E. 3. Richard Earl of Arundel by Petition to the King praying to have the Attainder of Edmond Earl of Arundel his Father reversed and himself restored to his Lands and Possessions upon the view of the Record and and the said Richard Earl of Arundels Allegation that his Father was wrongfully put to death and was never heard the whole Estates saith that ill Translator adjudged he was wrongfully put to Death and Restored the said Earl to the benefit of the Law which none could do but the King who was petitioned and having the sole interest in the forfeiture was none of those which were wrongfully called the whole Estates 37 E. 3. Where it is said that at the end of the Parliament the Chancellor in the presence of the King shewed that the King meant to execute the Statute of Apparel and therefore charged every State to further the same the King could not be understood to charge himself After which he demanded of the whole Estates so as before mistaken whether they would have such things as they agreed on to be by way of Ordinance or of Statute they answered by way of Ordinance for that they being to take benefit thereby might amend the same at their pleasure And so the King having given thanks to all the as aforesaid miscloped Estates for their pains taken licensed them to depart which should be enough to demonstrate that the Granter and Grantees were not alone or conjoynt and that the King giving thanks to the Estates did not give it to himself 42 E. 3. The Archbishop of Canterbury on the Kings behalf gave thanks to the whole in the like manner mis-termed Estate for their Aids and Subsidies granted unto the King wherein assuredly the Archbishop of Canterbury did not understand the King to be any part of the whole Estate which the King gave thanks unto The Commons by their Speaker desiring a full declaration of the Kings necessity require him to have consideration of the Commons poor Estate The King declared to the Commons that it was as necessary to provide for the safety of the Kings Estate as for the Common-wealth Anno 6. Regis Richardi 2. after Receivers and Triers of Petitions named Commandment was given that all persons and Estates which imported no more being rightly understood than conditions or sorts of men miscalled as aforesaid should the next day have the cause of summoning the Parliament declared 11 R. 2. The Parliament was said to have been adjourned by the common Assent of the whole Estates the first time of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being called the Estates without or with the Commons joyned with them no such names or words appellations or Titles were either known or in use nor any such words or Titles as Estates being to be found in the Originals or Parliament Rolls before Anno 11 R. 2. for no more appeareth in the Original than in and under these expressions viz. Et mesme le vendredi auxint a cause ce fest solempnite de pasch estoit a progeno ii coveient le Roi les Seigneurs tautx autres entendre a devotion le Parlement coe assent le toutz Estats le Parlement estoit continez del dit vendredi tanque Lindy lendemain de la equinziesme de Pasch adonquez prochem ensuent commandez per le Roy a toutz les Seigneurs Communs du dit Parlement Quils seroient a Westminster le dimengo en la dite quinzieme de pascha a plustaid sur ceo noevelles briefs furent â—aiots a toutz les Seigneurs somons au dit parlement de yestre a la dite quinzieme sur certaine peine a limiter per les Seiguro qui seroient presents en dit Parlement a la quinzieme avant dite le quel Limdy le dit Parlement fust recommence tenat son cours selont la request des Communs grant de nostre Seigur le Roi avant ditz And then but the inconsiderate hasty new created word of the Clerks in a distracted time when the great Ministers of State in two contrary Factions to the ruin of the King and many of themselves as it afterwards sadly happened were quarrelling with each other and all the Bishops so affrighted as they were enforced to make their Protestation against any proceedings to be made in that so disturbed a Parliament In Anno 21. R. 2. The Bishop of Exeter Chancellor of England taking his Theme or Text out of Ezechiel Rex unius omnibus erat proved by many Authors that by any other means than by one sole King no Realm could be well governed For which cause the King had assembled the Estates in Parliament to be informed of the rights of his Crown withheld which Oration afterwards was to the same effect seconded by Sir John Bussey Knight Speaker of the House of Commons King Richard the second being as a Prisoner in the Tower of London made the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Hereford his Procurators to publish his Rem 〈…〉 of the Kingdom to the whole Estates Which whether at at that time distinguished or divided into three doth not appear viz. into Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons could not comprehend the King who was not to be present but gave the direction and authority to his said Procurators and could never have been understood to have been present or one of them himself or to have made such a prosecution against or for himself After the claim made unto the Crown of England in Parliament by Henry Duke of Lancaster and a consultation had amongst the Lords and Estates not expressing that the Commons were a 3d. or any part thereof it being then altogether improbable that King Richard the 2d or any other representing for him was there present and to make one of the said pretended Estates as much out of the reach of probability that King Richard himself was one or a Person then acting against himself the Duke of Lancaster himself then affirming that the Kingdom was vacant And when the Usurping King Henry the 4th openly gave thanks to the whole Estates wherein is plainly evidenced that himself neither was or could be understood to be then or at any other time one of the said Estates The first day of the Parliament the Bishop of London