Earl of Ireland Mâ—chael de la Poole Earl of Suffolk Robert Tresylam Chief Justice Nicholas Bramber Knight and other of their adherents of High Treason against the King and his Realm The Articles they exhibited against them were 36 in number at large recorded in Henry de Knyghton de Eventibus Angliae l. 5. col 2713. to 2727. with the whole proceedings thereupon for which many were attainted condemned executed BY JUDGEMENT OF THE LORDS notwithstanding the Kings intercession for some of them to the LORDS they are likewise mentioned in the printed Statutes at large of 11 R. 2. c. 1 3 4. in Walsingham Hist Angliae p. 359 to 367. and other vulgar Historians I shall therefore for brevity refer you to them Exactum est juramentum a rege ad standum REGULATIONI PROCERUM et non solum a rege sed a cunctis regni incolis idem juramentum est expetitum In the Parliament of 14 R. 2. n. 14. The King and Lords without the Commons declared That in the 7 year of this King the Earldom of Richmond with the appartenances WERE ADJUDGED BY THE KING AND LORDS to be forfeited to the King by reason of the adherence of John Duke of Britain then Earl of Richmond to the French against his allegiance to the King and his father king Edward the 3. which judgement was not then enrolled in the Rolls of Parliament for certain causes known to the King and LORDS but was now inrolled and the lands granted to the Earl of Westmerland which King Henry the 4th would not revoke upon the Commons Petition to restore them to the Duke 1 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 78. In the Parliament of 17 R. 2. n. 11 Richard Earl of Arundel in the presence of the KING and LORDS accused the Duke of Lancastre of 5 particular misdemeanors In which when the King had justified him it was awarded by the King BY THE ASSENTS OF ALL THE LORDS that the Earl should in full Parliament make a formal submission to the Duke and crave pardon for his false accusation In the Parliament of 21 R. 2. rot Parl. n. 12. to 17. the Commons impeached Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury of high Treason for procuring the Duke of Glocester and others there named to accroach to themselves regal power and execute the Commission of 10 R. 2. when he was Chancellor praying that he might be kept under safe custody with a protestation of making for her accusations during the Parliament against him and others After which they prayed the King to give judgement against the Archbishop according to his desert who submitted himself to the Kings mercy Whereupon the KING LORDS and Sir Thomas Piercy the general Proctor for the Bishops in this case adjudged the fact of the Archbishop to be Treason and himself a Traytor and that thereupon he should be banished his temporalties seised and all his lands in proper possession or use together with his goods forfeited to the King and presenting the day and place of his departure into exile After this in the same Parliament of 21 R. 2. the Lords Appellant therein named accused the Duke of Glocester the Earls of Arundel and Warwick and others of High Treason for procuring the Commission in 10 R. 2. for raising forces and coming to the Kings person armed For accroching to themselves royal power and adjudging some to death and executing them as Traytors in the Parliament of 11 R. 2. For intending to surrender up their Homage and allegeance to the King and then to depose him and saying they had good cause to depose him c. Hereupon the Earl of Arundel being brought in custody to the Parliament before the Lords by the Kings command and assent of the Lords had his charge read and declared before him by the Duke of Lancaster Steward of England to which he pleaded his pardon which plea being disallowed because his pardon was revoked by this Parliament and he relying on it without any other plea the Lords appellants prayed judgement against him as convict of the Treasons aforesaid Whereupon the Duke of Lancaster by assent of the KING Bishops Earles and LORDS adjudged him convict of the Articles aforesaid and thereby a Traytor to the King and Realm and that he should be therefore hanged drawn and quartered and forfeit all his Lands in fee or fee-tayl which he had in the 10. year of this King with all his goods and chattels But for that he was come of Noble bloud the King pardoned his execution of hanging drawing and quartering and granted that he should be beheaded which was accordingly executed the same day on Tower hill by the Marshal of England The 28. of September the Earl of Warwick was brought ao his Trial in the same manner as the Earl of Arundel who confessed all the Articles submitted to the Kings grace and had the same judgement pronounced against him in the same manner as the Earl of Arundel But the King at the Lords Appellants and others requests pardoned his execution granted him his life and banished him into the Isle of Man The Duke of Norfolk by assent and Act of Parliament was tried in a Court Martial by the King Lords and some Knights for words spoken against the King and judgement was there given that he should be banished into Hungary and his lands forfeited to the King Within one year after such is the vicissitude of all worldly honour and power in the Parliament of 1 H. 4. Plac. Coron n. 1. to 11. at the prayer of the Commons the great Lords Appellants Edward Duke of Albemarl Tho. Duke of Surry John Duke of Exeter John Marquess Dorset John Earl of Salisbury and Thomas Earl of Glocester were all questioned and brought to their several answers before the King and Lords for their Acts and proceedings in the Parliament of 21 R. 2. the records whereof being read before them in Parliament they made their several answers and excuses thereunto whereupon the King and Lords after consultation thereupon ADJUDGED that the said Dukes Marques and Earls should lose their several Titles and Dignities of Dukes Marquess and Earls with all the honor thereunto belonging and that they should forfeit all the Lands and goods which they or any of them had given them at the death of the Duke of Glocester or since and that if they or any of them should adhere to the quarrel or person of King Richard lately deposed that then the same should be Treason The which Judgement was pronounced against them by William Thurning Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in Parliament by the Kings command but in the Parliament of 2 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 33. upon the Petition of the Lords and Commons to the King the Earls of Rutland and Somerset were pardoned and restored by the King in Parliament In the Parliament of 2 H. 4. n. 14. the Bishop of Norwich was accused by Sir Thomas Erpingham the Kings
ever violated in oppugning all arbitrary tyrannical Proceedings Taxes Oppressions Encroachments ill Counsellors and bad Instruments both of Kings and Popes themselves in inflicting exemplary punishments upon all Traytors Enemies to the publike both in our Parliaments and the Field too when there was occasion the principal whereof I have here presented to your view in a Chronical method will be a great accession to your Honour the best vindication of your antient undoubted Parliamentary Jurisdiction Right Power Judicature against all Opposites till the accomplishment whereof I shall humbly recommend this enlarged Plea in your Honors defence to your Noble Patronage who can pitch upon no better nor readier means to support your declining Honor and Authority or to re-indear your selves in the Peoples affections than in these distracted dangerous stormy times to ingage all your interest power activity speedily to settle secure Gods Glory Truth Worship the publike Laws Peace Liberty Safety of the Kingdom against all open Opposers and secret Underminers of them to unburthen the people of their long-continued heavy Taxes the Souldiers insolencies free-quarters to redress all pressing grievances all oppressing arbitrary Committees proceedings contrary to the rules of Law and Iustice to right all grieved Petitioners especially such who have waited at least seven years space at your doors for reparations to relieve poor starved Ireland raise up the almost lost honor power freedom reputation of Parliaments by acting honourably heroically like your selves without any fear favour hatred or self-ends by confining your selves with the Commons House to the antient bounds rules of Parliamentary Jurisdiction proceedings and by endeavouring to excel all others as farr in Iustice Goodness and publike resolutions as you do in Greatness and Authority Which that you may effectually perform as it is the principal scope of this Plea for your Lordships which whether you stand fall or by way of Remitter recover your antient rights again after a violent discontinuance of them for a season will remain as a lasting Monument to all Posterity of your undubitable just Right to sit and judge in all English Parliaments So it shall be the constant prayer of Your Lordships devoted Servant WILLIAM PRYNNE From my Study in Lincolns Inne 7. Junii 1647. To the Ingenuous READER THis Plea for the LORDS and House of PEERS was first suddenly compiled and published by me in the year 1647 when Lilburn Overton with their Iesuitical and Anabaptistical levelling Confederates endeavoured by sundry seditious Pamphlets libels Petitions then printed dispersed in the City Army Country to extirpate the Lords and House of Peers together with the King and Monarchy by engaging the vulgar Rabble Souldiers and Commons to suppresse pull down or cast off their superiour just antient legal authority over them not only against the expresse Laws of God and the Realm their own Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance Protestation Covenant but the very Law of Nature it self universally received amongst all Nations whatsoever Haec enim lex Naturae apud omnes Gentes recepta est quam nullum tempus delebit UT SUPERIORES INFERIORIBUS IMPERENT Which Law these unnatural Bedlams would now quite obliterate endeavouring to set up that Aâ—axy disorder in Government which Solomon and God himself by him so much complain of Eccles 10.5 6 7. There is AN EVIL I have seen under the Sun as AN ERROR that proceedeth from the Ruler Folly or persons of mean fortune parts birth is set in high dignity and the rich set in low place I have seen Servants upon Horses and Princes walking as Servants upon the earth Which disorder he thus censures Prov. 19.10 Delight is not seemlâ— for a fool much lesse for a Servant to have rule over Princes The sad effects whereof he thus relates Prov. 30.21 22. For three things the Earth is disquieted and for a fourth which it cannot bear the 〈◊〉 and chief whereof is this For a Servant when he reigneth To which David subjoyns another ill consequence Psal 12.8 The ungodly walk on every side when the vilest of the Sons of men are exalted which the Chaldâ— paraphrase thus glosseth In circuitu improbi ambulant tanquam sanguisugae qui sugunt sanguinem filiorum hominum the peasantry when exalted above the antient Nobility and Gentry being usually both intollerably proud insolent cruel bloâ—dy according to the old observation of Claudians and others Asperius humili nihil est cum surgit in altum Cuncta ferit dum cuncta timet desaevit in omnes Vt se posse putent nec bellua tetrior ulla Quam servi rabies in libera collâ— furentis Agnoscit gemitus et paenae parcere nescit This was experimentally verified not only in Wil. Langhamp heretofore and other particular persons advanced from low degree to places of greatest honour but in the popular insurrections of John Cade Jack Straw Wat Tyler and others who intended to murther the King destroy the Nobles Judges Prelates Lawyers and chief Gent. they could meet with than to seise upon their lands estates and make themselves Kings Lords in their steads and share the Kingdom Government between them and by the Anabaptists proceedings of like Nature at Munster and other places in Germany whom the present Levellers of this sect would doubtlesse imitate could they get but sufficient power into their hands My absence in the Country whiles this Plea was printing caused many material mistakes of words and one grosse mutilated transposition in Cheddars case in its first Edition p. 48 52. which I could not correct most of the Books being dispersed before I could get an Errata printed and the small time I had to compile it necessitated me to omit many material Records Presidents Histories pertinent to this Argument Whereupon to right my self with the Lords whose cause I pleaded and the Readers I soon after resolved to publish a corrected much inlarged Impression thereof but other publike Imployments and publications retarding it and the whole House of Lords some few Months after being forcibly suppressed my self with sundry other Members of the Comunions House secured secluded and after that dispersed and sent close prisoners by Mr. Bradshaws illegal Warrants unto several remote Castles without any hearing or cause expressed or recompence for the Injuries damages thereby sustained this much augmented Plea hath lyen dormant ever since and had never been awaked to walk abroad in publike had not the late loud unexpected Votes at Westm of a NEW KING AND HOUSE OF LORDS under the Name Notion of ANOTHER HOUSE passed by some who had lately c suppressed decryed engaged against them both as uselesse dangerous oppressive burthensom tyrannical c. revived and raised it out of the Grave of Oblivion The Subject matters principally debated and vindicated in it are only two First That all the Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons Lords of England have an undoubted antient just Right Privilege to sit vote in all Parliaments
Liberties from vassalage to the Norman yoke assembling all the Commons of Kent to Canterbury informed them That they were born freemen that the name of bondage was never heard amongst them that nothing but servitude attended them if they unworthily submitted to the insolency of the invading Enemy as others had done And thereupon exhorted them manfully to fight for the Laws and Liberties of their County chusing rather to end an unhappy life by fighting valiantly for them in the field than to undergoe an unaccustomed yoke of bonduge or to be reduced from their known Liberties to an unknown and unsure slavery After which the Archbishop and Abbot chusing rather to dye in battel than to behold the misery and slavery of their Native Country became the Captains of the Kentish Army which they raised and by a Stratagem invironing Duke William and his whole Army at Swanscomb they procured this Grant and Concession from him That all the people of Kent should for ever enjoy their antient Liberties without diminution and use the Laws and antient Customs of their Country they being resolved as Stigand told the Duke rather to part with their lives than them Liberty being the proper badge of Kentishmen After which Duke William marching to London to be Crowned King Cumque â—eracta victoria Tyranni nomen exhorrescens et legitimi Principis personam induere Gestiens à Stigando tunc temporis Canâ—uariensi Episcopo consecrari deposceret Ille out of an heroick gallant English Christian spirit Viro ut aiâ—bâ—t Cruento et alienâ— juris Invasori manus imponere nullatenus adquievit Whereupon he was crowned by Aldred Archbishop of York King William for this his stoutness and opposition in defence of his Countries Laws and Liberties under a pretence of honor first carried him with him into Normandy as a Prisoner at large afterwards upon feigned pretences caused him to be deprived of his Archbishoprick and then shut him up Prisoner in the Castle of Winchester where he soon after died of grief or famine having scarce enough allowed him to keep soul and life together Such a curb and terror was he to him whiles he lived in place and power that he could not carry on his designs against the English to captivate or enslave them till he was removed out of the way of this Conqueror who came to the Crown by the effusion of so much Christian bloud that Gulielmus Neubrigensis gives this censure of it and let all other invaders of the Crown by bloud observe it Sane quod idem Christianos innoxios hostiliter Christianus impetiit et tanto sibi sanguine Christianum Regnum paravit quantae apud homines gloriae tantae etiam apud Deum noxae fuit Whence Stigand refused to crown him Simon Monâ—eâ—ort Earl of Leicester the greatest Pillar and General of the Barons in the wars against King Henry the 3d for the preservation corroboration of Magna Charta the Liberties and Properties of the People was so terrible to this extravagant oppressive King frequently violating both his Great Charters Laws Oaths That being perswaded to enter into his house in a tempest of thunder and lightning which he very much feared the Earl courteously meeting him and saying Why do you fear tht tempest is now past the King thereunto replyed not jestingly but seriously with a stern countenance I fear thundring and lightning above measure but by the head of God I tremble more at thee than at all the thundring and lightning in the world Being afterwards slain in the Battel of Eusham in defence of his Countries Liberties Rishanger gives this Encomium of him Thus this magnificent Earl Simon ended his dayes who not only bestowed his estate but his person and life also for relief of oppressions of the poor for the asserting of Justice and the Rights of the Realm A sufficient Ground for such Nobles and their Posterity to sit and Vote as Peers in Parliament without the peoples election In the 3 4 14 15 of K. Edw. 2. his reign Tho. Earl of Lancaster and other potent wealthy Barons were the chief Sticklers against Gaverston and the Spencers who seduced the King oppressed the people and were the principal Pillars of our Laws Liberties as our Historians relate at large procuring those ill Counsellors to be banished and removed from the King even by force of Arms. In 10 11 22. of King Rich. 2. the Duke of Gloucester the Earl of Arundel and other potent Lords were the principal opposers of the Kings ill Counsellors Tyranny the chief protectors of the Laws and peoples Liberties to the loss of some of their lives heads estates as our Statutes the Rolls of Parliament in those years and Historians witness whence Walsingham writing of the Duke of Glocester's death murthered by the Kings command at Calice who was the principal Anti-royalist and head of all the Barons useth this expression Thus died this best of men the Son and Uncle of a King in quo posita fuere spes solatium TOTIVS REGNI COMMUNITATIS in whom the hope and solace of the Commonalty of the whole kingdom were placed who resented his death so highly that in the Parl. of 1 H. 4. Hall who had a hand in his murder was condemned and executed for a Traytor his Head Quarters hung up in several places and K. Richard among other Articles deposed for causing him to be murthered Since then our Peers and Nobles as the premised Examples abundantly evidence have been alwaies persons of greatest valour power estate interest most able forwards to oppose the Tyranny Exactions of our Kings and to preserve the Great Charters of our Liberties first gained since preserved and transmitted to us by their valour bloud counsel cate with our other Laws which they have upon all occasions manfully defended with the hazard loss of their lives Liberties Estates and upon this ground were thought meet by the wisdom of our Ancestors to merit and enjoy this privilege of sitting voting judging in Parliament by vertue of their Peerage and Baronies And since we must all acknowledge that the Lords assembled in a Great Council by the King at York as the Commons themselves acknowledge and remonstrate Exact Collection p. 13. were the chief instruments of calling this present Parliament and were therefore in the Act for Triennial Parliaments principally intrusted to summon and hold all future Parliaments in the Kings Lord Chancellors or Lord Keepers defaults Being also very active in suppressing the Star-chamber High Commission Councel-Table Prelats and other grievances and those who fitst appeared in the Wars against the King and his party in defence of our Laws Liberties Religion Parliaments Privileges to the great encouragement of others witnesse the deceased Lord General Essex Brooke Bedford Stamford Willougbie Lincoln Denbigh Manchester Roberts and others it would be the extremity of folly ingratitude and injustice to deny our Peers this hereditary Right Privilege Honour now w ch
Barons being no such Knights Citizens or Burgesses as the writ enjoyns them to elect and return 3. By all the Statutes for electing Knights Citizens and Burgesses recorded in Rastall Tit. Parliament the Lords being not within their words or intention 4. By the Great Charter of King John and express Statutes of 5 R. 2. Stat. 2. c. 4.31 H. 8. c. 10. Rot. Par. n. 10. which disable them to sit amongst the Commons but only in the Lords house among their Peers 5. By the very words of the Patents of their Creation which authorize and prescribe all Dukes Earls Viconts Barons in direct terms Quod in omnibus tenerentur tractentur et reputentur ut Duces Comites Barones quod haeredes sui masculi et eorum quilibet habeat teneat possideat sedem locum et vocem in Parliamentis publilicis Comitiis et Consiliis nostris Haeredum et Successorum nostrorum infra Regnum nostrum Angliae inter alios Duces Comites et Barones not amongst the Knights Citizens and Burgesses ut Duces Comites et Barones Parliamentorum Publicorum Comitiorum et Consiliorum not as Knights Citizens or Burgesses 6. By Sir Edward Cooks 4 Institutes p. 46 47. and Mr. Seldens Titles of Honour p. 736 737. who resolve That a Baron or Lord of Parliament is not eligible to be a Knight Citizen or Burgess of the House of Commons as was resolved in the case of Thomas Camoyes who was not only a Baronet but also a Baron and Lord of Parliament The Lord Camoyes being elected by the Freeholders of the County of Surrey for one of the Knights of the Shire to serve in Parliament for them Anno 7 R. 2. thereupon the King by advice of Council declared his election to be null and void in Law and commanded a new election of some other fit person to be made in his place by this memorable Writ extant on record Rex Vicecomiti Surriae salutem Quia ut accepimus tu Thomam Camoyes Chivaler qui Baronettus est sicut quamplures antecessorum suorum extiterunt ad essendum unum Militum venientium ad proximum Parliamentum nostrum pro Communitate Comitatus praedicti de assensu ejusdem Comitatus eligisti Nos advertentes quod hujusmodi Baronetti ante haec tempora in Milites Comitatus ratione alicujus Parliamenti elegi minime consueverunt ipsum de officio Militis ad dictum Parliamentum pro communitate Comitatus praedicti venturi exonerari volumus Et ideo tibi praecipimus quod quendam aâ—ium Misi em idoneum et discretum gladio cinctum in loco ipsius Thomae elegi et eum ad diem et locum Parliamenti praedicti venire facias cum plena et sufficienti potestate ad consentiendum hiis quae in Parliamento praedicto sicut juxta renorem prioris Brevis nostri tibi pro electione hujusmodi militum directi et nomen ejus Nobis Sciri facias Teste Rege apud Westmonasterium octavo die Octobris 7ly Both Houses of Parliament in their Remonstrance of Nov. 2. 1642. declare and publish in print to all the World This to be so clear and fundamental a privilege of Parliament That no Member of either House of Parliament is to be taken away or detained from the service of the House whereof he is a Member until such time as that House hath satisfaction concerning the cause and the cause be heard in Parliament first and dismissed from it That the whole freedom of Parlament dependeth upon it For who seeth not that by this means under false pretences of crimes and accusations such or so many Members of both or either Houses of Parliament may be taken out of it at any time by any persons to serve a turn and to make a MAJOR PART of whom they will at pleasure So as the freedom of Parliament dependeth in a great part on this privilege yea without it the whole Body of the Parliament will be destroyed by depriving it of its Members by degrees some at one time and others at another time as both Houses further remonstrate in their Declaration of October 23. 1642. Which as it infallibly demonstrates that the Lords House or Members cannot be taken away or taken from them against their wils without the destruction subversion of the whole Parliament of which they are chief Members the Judicial power of Parliaments residing principally in that House if not wholly So it likewise clearly resolves that no Peer or Member of the Lords House can be elected a Member of the Commons house For if the election of the Freeholders Citizens or Burgesses of any County City or Borough of a Duke Earl Lord or Baron of the Realm to be a Knight Citizen or Burgess in Parliament should be valid in Law to make them legal actual Members of the Commons house it would then lie in their powers to un-Peer un-Lord and degrade any Nobleman yea all the Earls Peers Lords Barons of the Realm and their Posterity at their pleasures to reduce them and the whole House of Peers into the Commons inferiour house and so quite dissolve the Lords House in high affront dishonor of the Lords and their House and of the Kings Soveraign royal Authority the fountain of all Honor and that without any legal trial or Judgment by their Peers or just cause of degradation on their parts against the express words and meaning of Magna Charta c. 29. And if any Lords upon such Elections should so far degenerate debase or degrade themselves as to accept thereof and ignobly sit and vote as Members of the Commons House both they and their posteritieâ— for such an ignoble act meritoriously deserved to be for ever degraded from their Nobility and secluded from all future sitting in the Lords House as Peers becoming thereby the very shame scorn scandal of Nobility fit only to be ranked with the basest Peasants to whom these Levellers would now equallize them Yea it would be now no less than wilfull perjury in any Freeholders Citizens Burgesses to elect them Knights or Burgesses and in themselves to accept of such Elections when chosen and in the whole House of Peers and Commons too once to permit allow approve or connive at such elections after their late Protestation Vow and Solemn League and Covenant to maintain to their power the Rights Privileges of Parliament and both Houses of Parliament whereof this is an unquestionable Right and Privilege That no Member of the Lords House should be elected a Knight Citizen Burgess or brought down from thence to sit only as a Commoner in the Commons House so long as he continues a Peer or Member of the Lords House a distinct House from and superior to the Commons House in all ages as its Title of the Lower House and their standing alwayes bare before the Lords with other evidences demonstrate nor any Knight Citizen or Burgess a true real Member of the House of Peers
unless a Peer by birth or creation those who are called to it only by general or special Writs not being formerly for life or inheritance Peers Nobles or holding by Barony of the King being only Assistants to the Lords as the Judges and others usually are not Members having votes It is the opinion of Sir Edward Cook in his Institutes on Littleton That if the King call any Layman to the Vpper house of Parliament generally by his Writ which he there recites that this alone doth create him a Baron and Lord of Parliament in fee simple without the word heirs and ennoble both himself and his heirs after him so as to make them hereditary Barons And this is the received opinion of most Grandees of the Law relying only upon his bare Ipse dixit though sometimes mistaken in his Judgement and frequently in his Records and Presidents whereon hee grounds his Opinion although he cites no president nor record at all to make good his Assertion in this case But under the favour of this Great Oracle of Law I conceive this Opinion of his to be no Law at all but a meer mistake for these ensuing reasons 1. Because there is not one word or syllable in this general Writ of Summons that gives him either the Name Title Honor or Dignity of a Lord or Baron of the Realm Therefore it cannot in Law or reason create him such a one If he were a Knight an Esquire a Master or Gentleman or Judge when the Writ was directed to him it gives him only that Title and summons him only by it without stiling him a Lord Baron Earl Viscount or Peer of the Realm at all Therefore it cannot ennoble nor create him one much less ennoble his posterity and give him an hereditary Barony without the word heirs since the Writ is only personal directed to himself alone 2. Because the Kings end and intention in summoning him to Parliament by this Writ is not to ennoble and create him a Lord Peer or Baron much less to ennoble his Posterity after him but only to consult and treat with him and the Prelates Lords and Nobles of the Realm concerning the affairs there propounded As this clause of the Writ demonstrates which only must ennoble him and his heirs if any to come to the Parliament at such a day and place that so the King may VOBISCUM with him not his heirs cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus dicti regni nostri colloquâ—um habere tractatum Which word VOBISCVM being distinguished from cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus Regni can not possibly create him a Lord or Baron no more than a Prelate of the Realm the rather because the word Baro is not in the Writ Neither can the following clause create him one Viz. dictis die loco personaliter intersitis Nobiscum cum Praelatis Magnatibus Baronibus supradictis super dictis Negotiis tractaturis vestrumque Consilium impensuris because it neither gives him the name nor stile of a Lord or Nobleman much less of a Baron no more than of a Prelate and summons him not to be a Lord Earl Prelate or Baron of the Realm but to be personally present with them which he may be though a private person and no Lord and to treat and give his advice with them concerning the businesses there propounded the only end for which he is summoned not to be their fellow Peer Lord or Baron So that it is against all sence and reason to aver that such a general Writ as this can create himself much less his Posterity Lords or Barons of the Realm in perpetuity It is a rule in Law and oft resolved That the Kings grant shall not inure to two intents nor pass or give two things at once especially when one of them only is expressed the other not Therefore this writ of the King shall not-doe it to create the party summoned a Baron meerly by implication which is not expressed and to summon him to conferr treat and give his advice in Parliament which is the only thing intended and clearly expressed 3ly The Writ summons him only to that particular Parliament then to be held at one certain day and place not to any other much less to all future Parliaments to be held Therefore it cannot create him and his heirs hereditary Barons and Members of the Lords House no more than the Writ for electing Knights Citizens and Burgesses for that particular Parliament makes them and their posterity Knights Citizens and Burgesses of Parliament for perpetuity It being both contrary to the words and intention of the Writ to make him much less his heirs Members of all succeeding Parliaments to which they must still be summoned by New Writs 4ly No Lord or Baron is or can be legally created but of some particular place Town City or the like whereof he is stiled Earl Lord or Baron But the general writ of summons gives him no such particular stile or title of dignity confined to such a certain place Therefore it cannot create him either a Lord or Baron or if it doth it must be sine titulo which were absurd 5ly No Duke Earl when created Viscount Lord or Baron is or can be created a Peer of the Realm by the Kings Letters Patents for life in tayl or see simple without expresse words in the Patent creating him such a one for life or him and the heirs males of his body or his heirs in general Dukes Marquesses Viscounts Earls Lords or Barons of such a particular place as all their Patents whereof you have sundry Presidents in Mr. Seldens Titles of honour lib. 2. ch 5. throughout and our books of Heraldry plentifully manifest And in all late Patents of creation since 20 H. 8. of any Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts or Barons there is a special clause inserted enabling them and their heirs males and every of them to have hold and possess a seat and place in the Parliam of us our heirs and Successors within the Realm of England among other Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Lords and Barons of the Realm as a Duke Marquesse Earl Viscount Lord or Baron as Mr. Selden and their Patents inform us and I have formerly touched p. 49. If then the king by his Letters Patents cannot create men Nobles and Peers of Parliament for life in tail or see simple without these special and particular clauses then by the self same reason he cannot create them such by his writ unlesse it hath such special words and clauses in it and not by the general writ of summons forementioned wherein there is not one clause or syllable tending to such a particular personal or hereditary creation The rather because Sir Edward Cook himself confesseth that the Creation by Letters Patents is the surer though by writ be the antienter way for he and his posterity may sufficiently be created and made Noble by Letters Patents though he to whom they
were first made never sate in Parliament Whereas this writ hath no operation or effect to enoble him or his posterity unless and until he actually sit in Parliament for if he die before he sit or sit not at all neither he nor his issue are Noble This distinction and concession of his contradicts his former opinion That the Writ it self doth not ennoble the person and his heirs for if it did then he and they should be ennobled by it though he died before he â—aâ—e in Parliament because they are thus ennobled by Letters Patents which create them Nobles or Peers and make them actually such though they never sit in Parliament 7ly Sir Edward Cook in his 4 Institutes p. 44 45. thus resolves If the King by his Writ calleth any Knight or Esquire to be a Lord of the Parliament he cannot refuse to serve the King there in communi illo confilio for the good of his Country But if the King had called an Abbot Peer or other regular Prelate by Writ to the Parliament to the Common Council of the Realm if he held not of the King per Baroniam he might refuse to sit in Parliament because quoad secularia he was mortuus in lege and therefore not capable to have a voice or place in Parliament unless he did hold per Baroniam and were to that Common Council called by Writ which made him capable And though such a Prelate regular had been often called by Writ and had de facto had place and voice in Parliament yet if in rei veritate he hold not per Baroniam HE OUGHT TO BE DISCHARGED OF THAT SERVICE AND TO SIT NO MORE For that the Abby of Leicester was founded by Robert Fitz Robert Earl of Leicester albeit the Patronage came to the Crown by the forfeiture of Simon de Mountford Earl of Leicester yet being of a Subjects foundation it could not be holden per Baroniam therefore the Abbot had no capacity to be called to the Parliament and thereupon the King did grant Quod idem Abbas successores sui de veniendo ad Parliamentum Concilia nostra vel haeredum nostrorum quieâ—i sint exonerati in perpetuum But all these Cases abovesaid and others that might be remembred touching this point as little Rivers do flow from the fountain of Modus tenendi Parliamentum where it is said Ad Parliamentum summoneri venire debent ratione tenurae suae omnes singuli Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates Barones Priores alii Majores Cleri qui tenent PER COMITATUM VEL BARONIAM ratione hujusmodi tenurae nulli minores nisi eorum praesentia necessaria utilis reputetur To which purpose he likewise cites the Act of Parliament of 10 H. 2. called the Assize of Clarindon and the Great Charter of King John in the 17 year of his reign here forecited p. 21 30 31. For Modus tenendi Parliamentum here so much magnified I have already p. 20 sufficiently discovered it to be a late forgery and imposture out of the very Treatise it self by undeniable proofs which I wonder Sir Ed. Cook Mr. Agar and other pretended judicious Antiquaries observed nor being so obvious yet though it be an imposture and erronious in other things I shall grant it true in this particular here cited As to the point in controversie had Sir Ed. Cook here thus distinguished in the case of Laymen Knights Esquires as he doth in case of Abbots Priors and Religious persons that if the King had by his Writ called any Laymen Knight ot Esquire to the Lords House of Parliament by his general Writ who held of him in fee or fee tayl per Baroniam and was a Baron by tenure that this had enobled him and his posterity as Barons he could not refuse to serve the King as a Baron in this Common Councel for the good of his Country his opinion might have passed for good Law For such who had lands in fee or fee tayl of the King by an intire Barony being Barons and Peers of the Realm by their very tenures ought of right by the express words of the Statute of Clarindon the Great Charter of King John and by the Common Law and Custom of the Realm to be summoned as Barons by the Kings special writs directed to them to all Parliaments and great Councils of the Realm by vertue of their Tenures as well as Bishops Abbots Peers and other regular Prelates who held by Barony yet the writ in this case doth not make them and their heirs Barons by writ nor give them a right to sit and vote in Parliament but only declare them and their heirs to be Barons and to sit there as Barons by their Tenure not by vertue of the Writ it self But if the King by this general Writ summon any Layman Knight or Esquire to the Lords House who holds not by Barony this doth no more make him a Lord or Baron in perpetuity to him and his heirs nor no more oblige him or his heirs to sit there than Abbots but that they may refuse to serve in Parliam if he were no Peer before being not obliged by any Law to sit and serve therein as a Baron or Member of the House of Peers by the Writ alone which doth not bind an Abbot Prior or regular Prelate or ennoble him and his Successors to be Peers and Barons of the Realm though they hold only by Frankalmoign not by Barony the Tenure By Barony being that alone which obligeth both of them to sit and serve in Parliament unlesse they be created Dukes Earls Viscounts Lords Peers or Barons by Patent or else by a special Wrir wherein the estate and dignity of a Baron is both created and limited as in the Writ that created Sir Henry de Bromflet Baron of Vescey in the 27 year of King Henry the 6 where after the Nullatenus omittatiâ— this Clâ—se is inserted Volumus enim vos haeredes vestros maâ—culos de corpore vestro legitime exeuntes BARONES DE UESCY EXISTERE Teste c. If a Layman who holds not by Barony be created a Duke Earl Baron or other Peer of the Realm for life in tayl or in fee by Letters Patents or an Abbot or Prior who holds not by Barony and his Successors be created Lords of Parliament by a special Patent of the King as Richard Banham Abbot of Tavestoke and his Successors were bâ— King Hen. the 8. to whom the King granâ—ed by special words Ut eorum quilibet qui pro tempore fuerit Abbâ—s sit erit unus de Spiritualâ—bus religiosis DOMINIS PARLIAMENTI NOSTRI haeredum successorum nostrorum gaudendo honoreâ— Privilegio libertaribus ejusdem This obligeth them to appear and serve in Parliament upon every Writ of Summons and they their heirs males and Successors cannot refuse to serve or voluntarily absent themselves without cause or license under pain of being fined
Seignour le Roy que ore est tenue a Westminstre lanquinzisme per examinent dez Praelates Contes Barones et tote la commune de Realm fuist notoriement trove que vostre piere vous Hugh fuâ—stez agardez TRAYTOURS enmys del Realm pur quel par assent commandment nostre Seigniour le Roy vostre Piere vous Hugh fuistez exules del Realm sanz james revenir si ceo ne fuist par lassent commmandment nostre Seignious le Roy ceo en playne Parlement duement al ceo summounz And for his returning into England against this Act and his manifold murders oppressions and misdemeanors since there recited at large he was condemned to be hanged drawn bowelled quartered and beheaded which was executed accordingly December 8. and his head fixed on a Poll and set upon London bridge The Repeal of the Spencers exile was not long after repealed and the Act for their exile re-confirmed in the Parliament of 1 E. 3. ch 1 2. in the Statutes at large which recites That they were exiled disinherited and banished out of the Realm by the Commons assent and award of the Peers and Commons of the Realm and by the assent of King Edward as Traytors and Enemies of the King and of his Realm And that he by the Common Counsel of the Prelates Earls Barons and other Great men and of the Commonalty of the Realm in his Parliament holden at Westminster did ordain and establish That the repeal of the said Exile which was made by Duress and force should be adnulled fâ—r evermore and the same exile made by the award of THE PEERS AND COMMONS BY THE KINGS ASSENT as aforesaid shall stand in its strength in all points after the tenour of every Article therein contained But this Act of repeal by the like power and assent was repealed as erronious and the heir of the Spencers restored to blood and Lands by the Parliament of 21 R. 2. Rot. Parl. u. 35. to 57. And that whole Parliament again repealed and nulled by 1 H. 4. c. 3. Cooks 4 Instit p. 25. This was the issue of this very first Attainder wherein the Commons concurred with the Lords being carried by force and power on all hands in those turbulent times In the Parliament of 11 R. 2. ch 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. in the Statutes at large Alexander Archbishop of York Robert de Vere Duke of Ireland Michael de la Pale Earl of Suffolk Robert Tresylien chief Justice R. Belknap with sundry other Judges Lawyers Knights Gentlemen Clergymen and other Commons and Prelates were impeached by the Duke of Glocester and other Lords Appellants of High Treason in 36 Articles thereupon attainted condemned judgement of death banishment forfeiture of their lands and estates given against them in Parliament by the Lords without the Commons After which the Lords exhibited a Petition to the King for the confirmation of the said Attainders and forfeiture Whereupon the King considering the matâ—er of the said Petition to be true at the request of the said Commons of the assent of the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and all others of this present Parliament granted the request of the said COMMONS in all points after the form of the said Petition And moreover of the assent aforesaid passed sundry Acts touching their Attainders Judgements Exiles and forfeitures which all may peruse at leisure in the Statutes at large In the Parliament of 21 R. 2. upon the Petition of the Commons by the like assent c. 2. to 12. in the Statutes at large these Attainders Judgemens forfeitures and the whole Parliament of 11 R. 2. were repealed as erronious and nulled Yet after by the Parliam of 1 H. 4. c. 3. the Parl. of 21 R. 2. is nulled and that of 11 R. 2. revived and confirmed with all the attainders and Judgements therein given In the Parliament of 9 H. 6. c. 8. Owen Glendor formerly endited and attainted of high Treason for his grand insurrections and rebellions by the assent of the Lords spiritual and temporal and of the Kingâ— at the special request of the Commons was by special Act declared a Traytor and all manner of Indictments Inquisitions Processes Records Judgements Ordinances Statutes made against him authorized established for Law by assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament In the Parliament of 29 H. 6. c. 1. The King by the advice of the Lords spiritual temporal and at the request of his Commons by a special Act attainted John Cade of several High Treasons for traytorously imanâ—ging the Kings death the destruction and subversion of this Realm in gathering and levying great numbers of the Kings people and them exciting to make insurrection against the King his regalty crown and dignity and to make and levy war falsly and trayterously against the King for which they confiscated all his Lands Tenements rents and possessions to the king corrupt and disable his blood for ever and enact him to be called a false Traytor within the Realm for ever And in 31 H. 6. c. 1. with the advise and assent of the Lords and at the request of the Commons it is ordained established that the said John Cade shall be reputed had named and declared a false Traytor to the king and all indictments and proceedings had and made under the power of his Tyranny were clearly repealed and adnulled for ever and to be of no effect but void in Law and put in oblivion and destroyed for ever as purposed against God and Conscience and the Kings royal estate and preheminence and also dishonourable and unreasonable In the Parliament held Anno 38 H. 6. rot Parl. n. 5. to 26. Richard Duke of York with sundry other Lords and Commons were attainted of High Treason by Bill for conspiring and levying war againâ—t the King And in the Parliament of 1 E. 4. rot Parl. n. 12 17. to 37 King Henry the 4 H. the 6 Queen Margaret Edward Prince of Wales Henry Duke of Somerset the Earl of Devonshire with sundry other Knights Esquires and Gentlemen Priests and Yeomen were attainted of High Treason by Bills for levying war against king Edward the 4. In the Parliament of 4 E. 4. rot Parl. n. 2. to 39. the Duke of Somerset Henry Beauford Sir Ralph Piercie with sundry other Knights Esquires and Gentlemen were attainted of High Treason by Bill for levying war against the king most of which attainders in the Parliaments of 12 E. 4. rot Parl. n. 15. to 36.13 E. 4. n. 45.14 E. 4. n 45.27 28 29 31 32.17 E. 4. n. 19 20 21 22. E. 4. n. 23 were repealed by Bills and the parties or their heirs restored to blood and Lands In the Parliaments of 14 E. 4. rot Parl. n. 34 35 36 37. Sir Richard and Sir Robert Wells John Vere Earl of Oxford Sir Thomas Vere with sundry more Knights and Gentlemen were attainted by Bill of High Treason for Levying war against the king and some of
committed to the Tower of London The 7 day of February the Commons by William Trussel their Speaker brought up and presented to the King and Lords in the Lords House a Bill against the said Duke containing an impeachment of several High Treasons committed by him against the King requiring of the Lords all their Articles therein to be enacted with prosecution therein The 9. of March they exhibited new articles of complaint against the Duke comprising sundry misdemeanors against the king and other persons which they require might be enrolled and that the Duke might answer to them The 9. of March the Duke was brought by the kings writ from the Tower into the Parliament Chamber before the King and Lords where the Articles were rehearsed to him who desired Copies of them which was granted And he for more ready answer was committed to certain Esquires to be kept in the Tower within the kings palace The 14 of March the Duke appeared before the K. Lords where on his knees he denied as untrue the 8 Articles of Treason and the same offered to prove as the King shall appoint The Chief Justice thereupon by the kings command asked this Question of the Lords what advise they would give the King what is to do further in this matter which advise was deferred till Monday then next following whereon nothing was done in that matter On Tuesday the 17 of March the king sent for all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal then being in Town being 24 in all into his Inner Chamber within his Palace of Westminster where when they were all assembled he then sent for the Duke thither who coming into the Kings presence kneeled down and continued kneeling till the Chancellor of England had delivered the kings command to him and demanded of him what he said to the Commons Articles not having put himself upon his Peerage Whereupon the Duke denied all the Articles touching the kings Person and state of the Realm as false and scandalous And so not departing from his said Answers submitted himself to the kings Rule and Governance without putting himself upon his Peerage Where thus the Chancellor told him That as touching the great and horrible crimes contained in the first Bill the king holdeth him neither declared nor charged And as touching the second Bill containing misprisions which are not criminal the king by force of his submission by his own advice and not reporting him to the advice of the Lords nor by way of judgement for he is not in place of judgement putteth you to his Rule and Governance that before the first of May next coming he should absent himself out of the kingdom of England and all other his Dominions in France or elsewhere and that he nor no man for him should shew or wait any malice nor hate to any person of what degree soever of the Commons in the Parliament in no manner of wise for any thing done to him in this Parliament or elsewhere And forthwith Viscount Beaumont in behalf of the said LORDS both spiritual and Temporal and by their advice assent and desire said and declared to the Kings Highness That this that so was decreed and done by his Excellency concerning the person of the said Duke proceeded not by their advice and Counsels but was done by the Kings own demeanoir and rule Wherefore they besought the King that this their saying might be enacted in the Parliament Roll for their more declaration hereafter with this protestation that it should not be nor turn in prejudice nor derogation of them their heirs ne of their successors in time coming but that they may have and enjoy their liberty as they or any of their Ancestors and Predecessors had and enjoyed before this time This is the sum of this large Record which makes nothing to the purpose for which Sir Edward Cook cites it in his 4 Institutes p. 25. That it is ERROR when both Houses joyn not in the Judgement For first here is nothing but an impeachment only by the Commons of a Peer who ought to be tryed judged only by his Peers not by Commoners Secondly there was no judgement given in Parliament in this case but only a private Award made by the King out of the Parliament House in his own Chamber in presence of the Lords Thirdly the Lords entred a special protestation against it as not made by their advice or consent Fourthly they enter a special claim in the Parliament Roll for the preservation of their Right and Freedom of Peerage for hereafter both of being tried and judged only by their Peers in Parliament and so an express resolution that the Peers in Parliament are and ought to be Judges especially of Peers not the Commons These Records of these cited at large lest Sir Edward Cooks brief quotation and mis-recital of them should deceive the credulous or ignorant Readers In the Parliament of 31 H. 6. rot Parl. n. 28. Thomas Earl of Devonshire was accused of Treason tried for and acquitted thereof by his Peers before Humfrey Duke of Buckingham Steward of England for the time being And for that the Duke of York thought the loyalty of the said Earl to be touched thereupon the said Earl protesting his Loyalty referred himself to further Trial as a Knight should doe upon which declaration THE LORDS in Parliament acquitted him as a loyal Subject Edward Duke of York with the Earls of March Warwick Salisbury Rutland John Lord Clinton and others were impeached and attainted by Judgement of the Lords in Parliament of High Treason for raising forces and levying war against King Henry the 6. and afterwards attainted by Bill in the Parliament of 38 H. 6. n. 7. to 26. In the Paâ—liamenr of 1 E. 4. n. 17. to 71. The Duke of Exeter Viscount Beamont the Earls of Pembroke Wilts and Devonshire the Lords Nevil Roos Gray Dacre Hungerford and others were first attainted and condemned of High Treason by THE LORDS and after by Bill for levying warr against King Edward the fourth The Duke of Somerset and others in the Parliament of 4 E. 4. n. 28. to 39. and John Vere Earl of Oxford with others in the Parliament of 14 E. 4. n. 34. to 41. were in the same manner for the same offence attainted of High Treason and their Lands forfeited To pretermit all other Attainders of this Nature in cases of High Treason in the reigns of Henry the 8. Edward the 6. Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and King James both in our English and Irish Parliaments formerly touched p. 196 197 198 199. In the Parliaments of 18 21 Jacobi Sir Francis Bacon Viscount St. Alban Lord Chancellor of England and the Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer of England were impeached accused convicted of Bribery Corruption and other misdemeanors removed from their places fined Middlesex 50000 l. imprisoned made uncapable of any Office and thus censured by Iudgement of the Lords house as the Journals of those Parliaments
inform us In the Parliament of 2. Caroli the Duke of Buckingham impeached the Earl of Bristol and the Earl of Bristol impeached this Duke before the Lords in sundry Articles for divers misdemeanours touching the Spanish match King Prince to seduce him in his religion praying judgment of the Lords thereupon against each other In the Parliament of 3. Caroli the Duke of Buckingham was accused and Impeached by the Commons before the Lords for sundry high Misdemeanors and the Parliament thereupon dissolved to prevent his censure In this very Parliament of King Charls now sitting Thomas Earl of Strafford was accused and impeached by the House of Commons of High Treason and other misdemeanors comprised in sundry Articles which they transmitted â—o the House of Lords desiring that he might be put to answer them and such proceedings examination trial and judgement thereupon had and given against him by the Lords as is agreeable to Law and Justice Hereupon he was openly tried in Westminster Hall before the House of Lords there sitting as his Judges where the House of Commons prosecuted and gave in Evidence against him sundry dayes and in conclusion demanded the Lords to give Iudgement against him in the Iudicial way After which they proceeded against him by way of Bill not to decline their Lordships Iustice in a Iudicial way but to husband time by preventing some doubts and as the speediest and soonest way Upon the passing of which Bill he was beheaded and executed as a Traytor On the 26 of February 1640. William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury was accused and impeached of High Treason by the House of Commons of 14. Articles then transmitted by them to the House of Lord The first whereof was this That he had trayterously endeavoured to subvert the fundamental Laws and Government of the Realm and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law And the last of them this That he had laboured to subvert the rights of Parliament and the ancient Course of Parliamentary proceeding which the New-modellers of our Parliaments more guilty hereof by many degrees than he may do well to consider Upon which they prayed from the Lords such proceedings examination trial and Iudgement against him as is agreeable to Law and Justice Upon these Articles he was brought to a publike Trial in the Lords House the 12. of March 1643. and after 17. whole dayes spent in his meer Trial and proof of the Charge against him and his defence thereto morning and evening and several other dayes spent in the hearing of him and his Council and the Commons Reply touching his Charge and the matters of Law whether the Charge prâ— against him amounted to High Treason the Lords upon most mature deliberation voted him Guilty of all the Articles and matters of fact charged against him and also of High Treason and thereupon passed an Ordinance for his Attainder by vertue whereof he was beheaded as a Traytor on Tower-Hill January 10. 1644. To these I might add the seveeal Articles of Impeachment transmitted by the House of Commons this Parliament to the Lords against Matthew Wren Bishop of Norwich the 20. of July 1641. against William Pierce Bishop of Bath and Wells and against the Bishops of Winchester Coventry and Litchfield Glocester Chichester Exeter St. Asaph Hereford Ely Bangor Bristol Rochester Peterborough and Landaffe August 4. 1641. requiring such proceedings from the Lords against them as to Law and Justice shall appertain All which are a superabundant impregnable Evidence of the Lords inherent Judicial power and right of Judicature in our English Parliaments even by the Commons House own Impeachments and acknowledgements against the Levellers pretences to the contrary By all these forecited presidents it is most apparent 1. That the King and Lords in our Parliaments in all ages both before and since the Commons admission to sit and vote in Parliaments have been the sole Judges of Ecclesiastical Peers and Lords in all criminal cases without the Commons 2ly That the Lords and Peers of the Realm except only in case of appealâ— both in and out of Parliament are triable only by their Peers And therefore the Trial condemnation and execution of any of them by Marshal Law or now misnamed High Courts of Justice by Commoners and others who are not their Peers is most illegal unjust and nought else but murther as the Parliaments of 1 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 45. of 1 E. 4. rot Parl. n. 18. resolve and as it was adjudged in the case of Thomas Earl of Lancaster Paâ—ch 39 E. 3. Coram Rege Rot. 92. Wiâ— Cooks 3. Institutes p. 52 53. Secondly The next and main question now conâ—roverted will be Whether the King House of Peers have any lawfull or sole power of Judicature in and over the persons of the Commons of England as well as over Peers in criminal causes misdemeanours offences or breaches of their Parliamentary privileges so farr as to fine imprison censure judge or condemn them in any kind without the House of Commons concurrent vote or judicature This the ignorant sottish Levellers Sectaries seduced by their blind guides John Lilburn and Overton peremptorily deny the contrary whereof I shall here infallibly make good to their perpetual shame and refutation by unanswerable Reasons and presidents in all ages 1. I have already manifested That the Parliament being the supremest Court of Judicature in the Realm must consequently have a lawfull Jurisdiction over all persons and members of the Realm whether Spiritual or Temporal Lords or Commons in all criminal and civil Causes proper for Parliaments to judge or punish That this power of judicature was originally and primitively vested in the King and Lords alone before there were any Knights Citizens Burgesses or Commons summoned to our Parliaments as is evident by the antient writers Glanvil Bracton Fleta Horn the Parliament of Clarindon Anno. 1164. and other forecited authorities and never transferred by them to the House of Commons upon or after their admission into our Parliaments but remaining intirely in the King and Lords as at first as the whole House of Commons acknowledge upon record 1 H. 4. rot parl n. 79. Therefore they may lawfully exercise this their judicial power and jurisdiction over the Commoners of England in all such causes now and hereafter and that of right as this record resolves they may do in positive terms 2ly Our Histories Law-books and Records agree that in ancient times our Earls who were called Comites or Counts from the word County had the chief Government and Rule of most of the Counties of this Realm under our King and that they and the Barons were the proper Judges of the Common people both in criminal and civil Causes in the Tourns County-Courts even by vertue of their Dignities and Offices as our Sheriffs are now in which Courts they did instruct the people in the Laws of the Land and administer Justice
against Sir Michael de la Pool Knight Lord Chancellor of England first before the Commons and afterward before the Lords which was granted Then he accused him BEFORE THE LORDS for bribery and injustice and that he entered into a bond of 10 l. to Iohn Ottard a Clerk to the said Chancellor which he was to give for his good success in the business in part of payment whereof he brought Herring and Sturgeon to Ottard and yet was delayed and could have no justice at the Chancellors hands Upon hearing the cause and examining witnesses upon Oath before THE LORDS the Chancellor was cleared The Chancellor thereupon required reparation for so great a slander the Lords being then troubled with other weighty matters let the Fishmonger to Bail and referred the matter to be ordered by the Judges who upon hearing the whole matter condemned Cavendish in three thousand marks for his slanderous complaint against the said Chancellor and adjudged him to prison till he had paid the same to the Chancellor and made fine and ransom to the King also which the Lords confirmed In the Parliament of 8 R. 2. n. 12. Walter Sybell of London was arrested and brought into the Parliament before the Lords at the sute of Robert de Veer Earl of Oxford for slandering him to the Duke of Lancaster and other Nobles for maintenance Walter denied not but that he said that certain there named recovered against him the said Walter and that by maintenance of the said Earl as he thought The Earl there present protested himself to be innocent and put himself upon the trial Walter thereupon was committed to Prison by the Lords and the next day he submitted himself and desired the Lords to be a mean for him saying he could not accuse him whereupon THE LORDS CONVICTED and FINED HIM FIVE HUNDRED MARKS TO THE SAID EARL for the which and for his fine and ransom to the King he was committed to prison BY THE LORDS A direct case in point By these two last Presidents of the Lords â—ining and imprisoning Cavendish and Syber two Commoners in Parliament for their standers and false accusacions only of two particular Peers and Members of their house it is most apparent the Lords now may most justly not only imprison but likewise fine both Lilburn and Overion for their most scandalous Libels against all the Members just Privileges Judicatory and Authority of the whole House of Peers which they have contemned vilisied oppugned and libelled against in the highest degree and most scurrillously abused reviled in sundry seditious Pamphlets to incite both the Army and whole Commonalty against them In the Parliament of 11 R. 2. the Duke of Glocester and other Lords came to London with great forces to secure themselves and remove the kings ill Counsellors and bring them to judgement whereupon the King for fear securing himself in the Tower of London and refusing to come to them at Westminster contrary to his faithfull promise the day before they sent him this threatning Message nisi venire maturaret juxta condictum quod eligerent alium sibi Regem qui vellet et deberet obtemperare consiliis Dominorum Wherewith being terrified he came unto them the next day Cui dixerunt PROCERES pro honore suo regni commodo oporterâ—â— ut Proditores susurrones adulatores et male fici detractores juratores à suo Palatio et Comitive etiam eliminarentur Whereupon they banished sundry Lords Bishops Clergy-men Knights and Ladies from the Court and imprisoned many other Knights Esquires and Lawyers to answer their offences in Parliament The first man proceeded against in Parliament was the Chief Justice Tresylian whom the Lords presently adjudged to be drawn and hanged The like Iuegement the Lords gave against Sir Nicholas Brambre Knight Sir Iohn Salisbury Sir Iames Burwâ—yes Iohn Beauchamp Iohn Blakes who were all drawn and hanged accordingly as Trayâ—ers one after another and Simon Burly beheaded after them by like judgement notwithstanding the Kings and Earl of Derbies intercessions for him to the Lords After their Execution Robert Belknapâ— John Holâ— Roger Fulthorp and William Burgh Justices were banished by the Lords sentence and their lands and chattels confiscated out of which they allowed them only a small annual pension to sustain their lives After which these Judgments against them were confirmed by Acts of Attainder as you may read in the Statutes at large of 11 R. 2. where their Crimes and Treasons are specified in Cokes 3 Institutes c. 2. p. 22 23. and in Knyghton Holinshed Fabian Speed Trussel with other Historians In the Parliament of 13 R. 2. n. 12. Upon complaint of the Bishop Dean and Chapter of Lincoln against the Mayor and Bayliffs thereof for injustice in keeping them from their rights and rents by reason of the franchises granted them which they abused Writs were sent to the Mayor and Baylifs to appear at a certain day before the Lords and to have full authority from the whole Comonalty to abide their determination therein At which day the Mayor and Bayliffs appearing in proper person for that they brought not full power with them from the said Commonalty they were anâ— goâ— by the Lords to be in contempt and so were the Mayor and Bayliffs of Cambridge for the self same cause this very Parliment n. 14. In the Parliament of 15 R. 2. n. 16. The Prior of Holland in Lancashire complained of a great riot done by Henry Treble John Greenboâ— and sundry others for entring into the Parsonage of Whitwâ—rke in Leicestershire thereupon John de Ellingham Serjeant at Armes by vertue of a Commission to him directed brought the said Treble and Greenbow the principle malefactors into the Parliament before the Lords who upon 〈◊〉 confessed the whole matter and were therefore committed to the Fleaâ— there to remain at the Kings pleasure after which they made a fine in the Chancery agreed with the Prior and found sureties for the Good behaviour whereupon they were dismissed The same Parliament n. 19. Sir Will. Bryan was by the King with the assent of the Lords committed prisoner to the lower during the Kings will and pleasure for purchasing a Bull from Rome to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to excommunicate all such who had broken up his house and taken away divers Letters Privileges and Charters which Bull was adjudged prejudicial to the King his Councâ—l and in derogation of the Law Num. 20. Thomas Harding was committed to the Fleet by the King and Lords assent there to continue during the Kings pleasure for falsly accusing Sir John and Sir Ralph Sutton as well by mouth as writing of a conspiracy whereof upon hearing they were acquitted And n. 21. John Shadwell of Baghsteed in Sussex was likewise committed to the Fleet by THE LORDS there to remain during the Kings pleasure for misinforming of the Parliament that the Archbishop of Canterbury had excommunicated him and his neighbours wrongfully in his
special Clause inserted into the Writs of Summons Nolumus autem quod tu seu aliquis alius Vicecomes regni nostri aut Apprentius aut aliquis alius homo ad Legem aliqualiter sit electus as appears by the Exem â—caâ—ron thereof in the Claus Roll of 5 H. 4. pars 2. m. 4 dorso in the Tower which I have viewed with mine own eyes by sundry transcripts thereof in Manuscripts and by this testimony of Thomas Walsingham who lived in writ the History of that time Direxit ergo Rex Brevia Vicecomit bus ne quosquam pro Comitatibus eligerent quovismodo milites qui in jure Regni vel docti fuissent vel Apprenticii sed tales omnino miâ—teren ur ad hoc nâ—gotium quoâ— constat ignorare cujusque juris methodum factumque est ita Whence he stiles it in his Margin PARLIAMENTUM INDOCTORUM No Lawyer being elected by reason of this Clause grounded on the forecited Ordinance Sir Edward Cook who is not only full of mistakes and mis-recitals of Records but most confident in them citing this passage of Walsingham thus bodly contradicts him But the Historian is deceived for there is no such Clause in these Writs but it was wrought by the Kings Letters by pretext of an Ordinance in the Lords House in 46 E. 3. when as the Writ it self in the Clause Roll concurring which Walsingham ascertains me that Sir Edward himself was deceived not the Historian by whom or upon what mis-information I know not And that he was so in truth we have his own expresse confession and testimony against himself within few leaves after At the Parliament holden at Coventry Anno 6 H. 4. the Parliament was summoned BY WRIT and by coâ—ler of the said Ordinance of Parliament in the Lords House in 46 E. 3. it was forbidden that no Lawyer should be chosen Knight Citizen or Burgess by reason whereof this Parliament was fruitless and never a good Law made thereat and therefore called Indoctum Parliamentum or Lack-latin Parliament And seeing these Writs were against Law ergo this Clause against Lawyers elections was in the Writs themselves Lawyers ever since for the great and good service of the Commonwealth have been eligible And then contradicting himself again in the very next lines he addes And albeit the prohibiting clause had been inserted in the Writ implying it was not yet bâ—iâ—g against Law Lawyers were of right eligible and might have been elected Knights Citizens or Burgesses in that Parliament of 6 H. 4. His reason is because Lawyers being eligible of Common right cannot be disabled by the said Ordinance of Parliament in the Lords House being no Act though Acts and Ordinances of Parl. are both the same in substance vigor as I have elsewhere proved at large against his New false Doctrine to the contrary Wherefore this Ordinance is still obligatory to practising Lawyers whiles they practise as well as to Sherifs whiles they are Sherifs unlesse they give over their practice sitting the Parl. to attend the service of the House which their practice makes them to neglect Clause 8 E. 2. m. 31. The chief Justice and other Officers of Ireland and R. de Burgo Earl of Vlton are sent for by Writ to come to the Parliament of England ad tractanduâ— cum Praelatis et Proceribus de regno nostro praedicto Claus 50 E. 3. part â— m. 23. Pro Hibernis de Hibernia venientibus ad Parliamentum Angilae there is a Writ directed to the Justices and Chancellor of Ireland Quod de Communitate Comitatuum Burgorum terrae praedictae faciatis habere per Breve de magno sigillo nostro hominibus ejusdem terrae nostrae praedictae regnum nostrum Angliae penes Concilium nostrum pro Communitate Comitatuum Burgorum ultimo venientibus videlicet euilibet eorum de Communitate Comitatus pro quo electus fuiâ— sive Civitatis sive Burgi rationabiles expensas suas c. Teste 25 Julii The Parliament ended the 10th of July By which Writ it is apparent That not only the great Officers and some Nobles but likewise knights and Burgesses were sometimes summoned and chosen in Ireland to come to this Parliament of England and had Writs for wages allowed them These varieties of the Kings writs for electing Knights and Burgesses summoning sometimes 4. sometimes 2. sometimes but one Knight out of a County most times 2 Citizens and Burgesses sometimes but one limiting the qualifications of their persons and summoning not only Great Officers and Peers but likewise Knights Citizens and Burgesses out of Ireland and particular persons by name amongst the Commons as in 32 Ed. 3. part 2. m. 32. dorso together with his making of new Burroughs by his Patents and authorizing them to send Burgesses to Parliam when they never sent any before there being now three times as many Burgesses of Parliament as there were in the reigns of King Edward the 1 2 and 3. as appears by the Writs in the Dorse of the Clause Rolls for their expences and wages are clear proofs and evidences that the King and his Council in the Lords House are the sole Judges of the elections of the Knights Citizens Burgesses of the Commons House and that they themselves have no power at all to seclude or eject any persons duly elected and sent thither by the Kings Writs though more or less than usual or from new erected Burroughs And if any City or Burrough which sends Members to the Commons House by the kings Charter or usage forfeit their Charters and Privileges for which the king seiseth them into his hands as in 49 H. 3. he seised Londons and others Liberties and Cambridges since he may deny to send them Writs to elect Citizens or Burgesses till their Franchises be restored and their Charters renewed and deny to grant them this liberty of Election any more if he please proceeding from his meer grace and grant to them at first and so to be restored out of Grace not Justice when forfeited by their default The Statute of 5 R. 2. Parl. 2. c. 4. The King willeth and commandeth it is assented to by the Prelates Lords and Commons That all persons which shall from henceforth receive the Summons of Parliament be he Archbishop Bishop Abbot Peer Duke Earl Baron Baronet knight of the Shire Citizen of the City Burgess of the Burgh or other singular person or Commonalty and come not at the said Summons except he may reasonably and honestly excuse himself to our Soveraign Lord the King he shall be amerced and otherwise punished as of old times hath been used to be done within this Realm Here the Excuse is to be made by the Knights Citizens Burgesses and Commons as well as Lords Spiritual and Temporal to THE KING not Commons House and if they cannot excuse themselves unto him then they are to be amerced as of old time have been used And that was never by the Commons House but
Premises THe Principal scope of the Precedent Plea for the Lords and House of Peers being only to justifie and ratifie their ancient just Right to sit and vote in all English Parliaments and Great Councils or State and their Judicial Authority in them without the Commons especially in Criminal Causes then only controverted contradicted by Lilbourne Overton their Disciples I reputed it both useful and necessary to superadde thereto some memorable Presidents in former ages which no Vulgar writers of our English Parliaments have remembred of the Kings and Lords Proceedings Judicature in Parliament in Civil and Ecclesiastical Causes of publick and private concernment as no way heterogeneal but homogeneal to my Theam to make this Plea more compleat and communicate some more knowledge of Parliamentary Affairs and Proceedings both to the Ignorant and Learned in this declining age wherein learning and learned men of publick spirits in all Professions are so much decayed and little Visible Probability left of any speedy reparations of this inestimable losse for want of publick encouragement I shall proceed herein only in a Chronological Method as I have done for the most part in the premises beginning with the ancientest president I meet with of this kind and so descending to succeeding ages About the year of Christ 536 Our famous Brittish victorious King Arthur by his Letters and Messengers summoned all the Kings Prelates Dukes and Nobles subject to him to meet at the City of Caerleon on the feast of Pentecost then to be new crowned and settle the peace and affairs of his Realmes whereupon there assembled at that time and place thirteen Kings three Archbishops and many Princes Dukes Consuls Earls and LORDS whose names are registred in Geoffry Monmouth whiles they were thus convened there arrived twelve men with letters from Lucius Tiberius procurator of the Roman Republick demanding in high language The Tribute of Brittain which the Senate command King Arthur to pay with the arrears injuriously detained because Julius Caesar had reserved it upon his conquest of Brittain and hee with other Romane Emperours had long received it summoning him likewise to appear at Rome in August the year following to satisfie the Senate for the injuries done them and submit to the sentence their Justice should pronounce or else denouncing war against him This Letter being publickly read before all the Kings Princes Dukes and Nobles present the King consulted with them craving their unanimous advise and sense concerning this business affirming That this Tribute was exacted ex irrationabili causa against all reason for he demanded it to be payd as due because it was paid to Julius Caesar and his successors who invited by the devisions of the old Brittains arrived with an Army in Brittain and By force and violence subjected the Country to their power shaken with domestick commotions Now because they obtained it in this manner vectigal ex eo injuste receperunt therefore they unjustly received tribute out of it Nihil enim quod vi violentia acquiritur juste ab â—llo possidetur qui violentiam intulit irrationabilem ergo causam praeâ—endit qua nos jure sibi tribitarios arbitratur For nothing which is acquired by force and violence is justly possessed by any man who hath offered the violence Therefore hee pretends An irrationable cause whereby hee reputes us to be Tributaries to him c. The whole Council upon debate fully assented to this opinion and promised the King their assistance against the Romans in this cause Whereupâ—n King Arthur returned this answer That he would by no mâ—ans render them tribute neither would he submit himself to their judgement concerning it nor repare to Rome c. An expresse resolution That Conquest by warr force and violence is no good just nor lawful but an unlawful and unjust Title to any Tributes or Possessions which these who now pretend they are Conquerors and us a meer conquered Nation and therefore they may impose what Taxes Excises Tributes Laws Executions they please upon us when as they were only raysed waged commissioned to defend preserve our Laws Liberties King Parliament and Kingdomes not to conquer or enslave them may do well to consider In the year of our Lord 799. King Kenulfus upon the petition and complaint of Athelardus Arch-Bishop of Canterbury consentientibus EPISCOPIS ET PRINCIPIBUS MEIS assembled in a Parliamentary Council restored four parcels of Lands to Christ-Church in Canterbury which King Offa heretofore had taken from this Church and conferred on his Officers Kenulfus King of Mercia calling a Provincial Council held at Cloveshe Anno Dom. 800. wherein all the Bishops Dukes Abbots and Nobles of every order were assembled complaint was made therein that after the death of Arch-Bishop Cuthhert Verheb and Osbert led by a malignant spirit stole away the evidences and writings of the Monastery of Cotham and all the Lands thereunto belonging given by King Athelbald to our Saviours Church in Canterbury and brought them to Kenulfus King of the West-Saxons who thereupon converted the said Monastery and Lands to his own use After which â—regwin and Jambert Arch-Bishops of Canterbury complained of this injurie done to the Church in sundry Councils both to King Kenulfus and Offa King of Mercia who took from Kenulfus the Monastery of Cotham with many other Lands and Towns and subjected them to the Realme of Mercia At last Kenulfus induced by late repentance restored the evidences and writings of the said Monastery together with a great summe of mony to the said Church to prevent the danger of an excommunication but King Offa as hee received the said Monastery without writings so hee retained them during his life and left them to descend to his heirs without any evidence after his death whereupon Athelardus the Arch-Bishop and other wise men of Christ-Church brought these Evidences and Writing touching Gotham into this Council of Clovesho where when they had been publickly read OMNIUM VOCE DECRETUM EST that it was just the Metropoliticall Church should bee restored to the said Monastery of which shee had been unjustly spoiled for so long a time Athelardus receiving also in this Council the dignities and possessions which King Offa had taken from Jamberâ— annuente ipso Rege as Gervasius records In a Council held at Clovesho Anno 813. Upon complaint of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Arch-Bishoprick of Litchfield was dissolved and the Bishopricks annexed to it by King Offa taken from the See of Canterbury restored and reunited thereunto by the consent of King Kenulfus his Bishops Dukes and Nobles who writ a Letter to Pope Leo for that purpose unanimo consilio totius sanctae Synodi And in this Council also other lands were restored to the Bishop of Worcester and other controversies between Bishops concerning their Lands and Limits decided In another Council at Clovesho Anno 821. Wherein King Kenulfus Wulfred Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with the rest of the Bishops Abbots
the Prior of Coventry the King granteth by Assent of the Bishops and Lords that no man do break the head of their Conduit nor cast any filth into their water called Sherbouâ—n on pain of ten pound and treble dammages to the Prior. In the Parliament of 9. H. 5. n. 12. Upon long debates of the Lords and Iustices it was resolved by them that the Abbot of Ramsy should have no prohibition against Walter Cook parson of Somersham who sued for Tithes of a Meadow called Crowland Mead in the hands of the Abbots Tenants In the great case of Precedency between the Earl Marshall and Earle of Warwick in the Parliament of 3. H. 6. n. 10 11. c. The Lords being to bee Iudges of the same suspended both of them from sitting in the house till their case was fully heard and they all voluntarily swore on the Gospel that they would uprightly judge the case leaving all affection In the Parliament of 11. H. 6. n. 32 33 34 35. Upon a Petition the King and Lords in Parliament adjudged the Dignity Seigniory Earledome of Arundel and the Castle and Lands thereunto belonging to John Earle of Arundel who proved his Title thereto by a deed of Entayle against the Title of John Duke of Norfolck who layed claim thereunto And in the Parliament of 39 H. 6. n. 10. to 33. The claime of the Duke of York and his Title to the Crown of England against the Title of King Henry the 6 th was exhibited to the Lords in full Parliament the Lords upon consultation willed it to be read amongst them but not to bee answered without the King The Lords upon long consultation declared this Title to the King who willed them to call his Justices Sergeants and Attorney to answer the same Who being called accordingly utterly refused to answer the same Order thereupon was taken That every Lord might therein freely utter his conceit without any impeachment to him In the end there were five objections made against the Dukes Title who put in an answer to every of them which done the Lords upon debate made this order and agreement between the King and Duke That the King should injoy the Crown of England during his life and the Duke and his heirs to succeed after him That the Duke and his two sons should bee sworne by no means to shorten the dayes or impaire the preheminence of the King during his life That the said Duke from thenceforth shall be reputed and stiled to bee the very Heir apparent to the Crown and shall injoy the same after the death or resignation of the said King That the said Duke shall have hereditaments allotted to him and his sons of the annual value of ten thousand marks That the compassing of the death of the said Duke shall bee Treason That all the Bishops and Lords in full Parliament shall swear to the Duke and to his heirs in forme aforesaid That the said Duke and his two sons shall swear to defend the Lords for this agreement The King by Assent of the Lords without the Commons agreeth to all the Ordinances and accords aforesaid and by the Assent of the Lords utterly repealeth the statute of intayle of the Crown made in 1. H. 4. so alwaies as hereafter there be no better Title proved for the defeating of their Title and this agreement by the King After all which the said Duke and the two Earles his sonnes came into the Parliament Chamber before the King and LORDS and sware to performe the award aforesaid with protestation if the King for his part duly observed the same the which the King promised to do All which was inrolled in the Parliament Rolls Lo here the Lords alone without the Commons judge and make an award between King Henry the 6th and the Duke of York in the highest point of right and title that could come in question before them even the right and title to the Crown of England then controverted and decided the King and Duke both submitting and assenting to their award and promising swearing mutually to perform it which award when made was confirmed by an Act passed that Parliament to which the Commons assented as they did to other Acts and Bills And here I cannot but take special notice of Gods admirable Providence and retaliating Justice in the translation of the Crown of England from one head family of the royal blood to another by blood force war treason and countenance of the Authority of the temporal and spiritual LORDS and COMMONS in Parliament in the two most signal presidents of King Edward and King Richard the 2 d. which some insist on to prove the Commons Copartnership with the Lords in the power of Judicature in our Parliaments the Histories of whose Resignations of their Regal Authority and subsequent depositions by Parliament I shall truly relate Anno 1326. the 19. of Ed. 2d Queen Isabel returning with her Son Prince Edward and some armed forces from beyond the Seas into England most of the Earles and Barons out of hatred to the Spencers and Kingâ— repaired to them and made up a very great army The King thereupon proclaimed that every man should resist oppose kill them except the Queen Prince and Earle of Kent which they should take prisoners if they could and neither hold any correspondency with them nor administer victuals nor any other assistance to them under pain of forfeiting their bodies estates But they prevailing and the King being deserted by most hee fled into Wales for shelter Whereupon Proclamation was made in the Queens army every day that the King should return and receive his Kingdome again if hee would conforme himself to his Leiges Quo non comparente Magnasâ—es Regni Hereâ—ordiae Concilium injeâ—unt in quo filius Regis Edwardus factus est Cusâ—os Angliae communi Decreto cui cuncti tanquam Regni custodi fidelitatem fecerunt per fidei sacramentum Deinde Episcopum Norwicensem fecerunt Cancellarium Episcopum vero Wintoniensem regni Thesaururium statuerunt Soon after the King himself with most of his evil Counsellors were taken prisoners being betrayed by the Welch in whom they most confided Hagh Spencer Simon Reding Baldoik and others of the Kings party being executed at Hereford Anno 1327. the King came to London about the feast of Epiphany where they were received with great joy and presents Then they held a Parliament wherein they all agreed the King was unworthy of the Crown and fit to be deposed for which end there were certain Articles drawn up against him which Adam de Orleton Bishop of Winchester thus relates in his Apology i Ea autem quae de Consilio et assensu omnium Praelatorum Comitum et Baronum et totius Communitatis dicti Regni concordata ordinata fuerunt contra dictum regem ad amotionem suam a regimine regni contenta sunt in instrumentis publicis Reverendo patre domino J. Dei
ut parvulus parvulus enim non sapit nisi placentia adulatoria arguentem secundum veritatem non diligit ymmo odit supra modum Quondam autem veritus fuerat subpeditata ut nullus auderet loqui satis constat per hoc patet quod ille qui regnabat sapiebat ut parvulus vir enim non sapit talia set sapientiam unde per Dei gratiam dici poterit de isto viro quod scribitur Eccl. ix Beatus vir qui in sapientia morabitur sicut enim puer diligit vanitatem ita vir sapit veritatem sapientiam veritas ergo intrabit adulatio recedat quae tot mala in regno nostro fecerunt quia vir dominabitur populo qui veritatem sapit non qui vanitatem vel adulationem Tertio dicitur Cogitabam ut parvulus parvulus enim solum studet facere omnia voluntarie non ex ratione cum igitur puer regnat voluntas sola regnat ratio eâ—ulat ubi vero voluntas regnat ratio recessit constantia fugata est ita imminet magnum periculum ab isto periculo liberati sumus quia vir dominabitur ille scilicet qui dicit non sicut parvulus set sicut ratione perfectus Non veni facere voluntatem meam set ejus qui misit me scilicet Dei ideo de viro isto non solum dicemus quod in sapientia morabitur set eciam ut vir non ut puer in sensu cogitabit circumspectionem Dei id est circumquaque diligenter aspicit ut Dei voluntas non sua fiat ita loco pueri voluntarie lascivientis vir modo dominabitur in populo iste vir est talis quod dicetur Regnabit Rex sapiens erit faciet judicium justitium interra Qua collatione completa dictus Dominus Rex Henricus ad ponendum suorum subditorum animos in quiete dixit publice tunc ibidem haec verba Sires I thank God and yowe Spirituel and Temporel and all the estates of the Lond and do yowe to wyte it es noght my will that no man thynk that be waye of conquest I wold disherit any man of his heritage franches or other ryghts that hym aght to have to put him out of that that he has and has had by the gude Lawes and Customes of the Rewme Except thos personâ— that has been agan the gude purpose and the common profit of the Rewme Et protinus hoc attento quod per prius vacante sede regali per cessionem depositionem praedictas cessavit omnis potestas quorumcunque Justiciariorum Vicecomitum aliorium Officiariorum ubique per regnum ne exhibitio justitiae in gravamen populi dilationis incommodo subjaceret suos officiarios principales ac eciam Justiciarios deputavit ibidem juramento consueto Regi praestito per singulos eorundem Et fuit ilico de dicti Regis mandato publice proclamatum ibidem quod die Lunae proximo post festum sancti Michaelis Parliamentum ibidem teneri celebrari deberet quodque die Lunae proximo extunc sequente videlicet in festo sancti Edwardi Coronatio dicti Regis fieret apud Westmonasterium quod omnes illi qui vendicare voluerint aliquod servitium se in dicta Coronatione facturos eo praetextu aliquid sibi deberi venirent ad Albam aulam palacii coram Senescallo Constabulario Marescallo Angliae die Sabbati proximo ante diem Parliamenti praedicti quod in ea parte justum fuerit petituri quibus plena justitia fierit in petitis Quantum autem ad abbreviationem assignationis diei Parliamenti praedicti fuerat pro parte dicti Regis protestatio talis facta videlicet quod non erat intentionis suae ut statibus regni sui praejudicium afferatur exinde nec quod hoc trahatur de caetero in exemplum quinymmo quod abbreviatio illa fiebat tantummodo pro commodo utilitate regni specialiter ut quorumcunque ligeorum suorum parcatur laboribus expensis quodque super gravaminibus populi celere possit remedium adhiberi Quibus omnibus sic peractis Rex desede sua regali surgens populum vultu hillari benigno respiciens abinde populo congaudente recessit in Alba aula praedicta convivium regni Proceribus ac generosis illuc in multitudine maxima congregatis eodem die solempnissime celebravit ET POSTMODUM die Mercurii proximo extunc sequente dicti Procuratores ut praemittitur deputati ad praesentiam dicti Richardi nuper Regis infra dictam Turrim existentis prout eis injunctum fuerat accesserunt praefatus Dominus Willielmus Thirnyng Justiciarius pro se dictis sociis comprocuratoribus suis nomine omnium statuum populi praedictorum admissionem dictae renunciationis ac modum causam formam sententiae depositionis hujusmodi eidem Ricardo notificavit ac plenius declaravit statim homagium fidelitatem eidem Ricardo nuper Regi ut praemittitur facta resignavit reddidit sub hiis verbis Les paroles qe William Thirnyng parla a monsire Richard nadgaires Roy d' Engleterre a le Toure de Londres en sa Chambre le Mesqerdy procheyn apres le fest de Seint Michell larchaunchel sensuent SIRE It is wele knowe to yowe that ther was a Parlement somond of all the States of the Reaume for to be at Westmynstre and to begynne on the Tuesday in the morne of the fest of Seint Michell the Archaungell that was yesterday by cause of the whiche Sommons all the States of this lond were there gadyrd the whiche States hole made thes same persones that ben comen here to yowe now her Procuratours and gafen hem full auctorite and power and charged hem for to say the wordes that we sall say to yowe in her name and on thair behalve that is to wytten the Bysshop of Seint Assa for Ersbisshoppes and Bisshoppes the Abbot of Glastenbury for Abbots and Priours and all other men of holy Chirche Seculers and Rewelers the Erle of Gloucestre for Dukes and Erles the Lord of Berkeley for Barones and Barnerettes Sir Thomas Irpyngham Chamberleyn for all the Bachilers and Commons of this Lond be south Sire Thomas Grey for all the Bachilers and Commons by north and my Felawe Johan Markham and me for to come wyth hem for all thes States and so Syre thes wordes and the doyng that we sall say to yowe is not onlyâ—h our wordes bot the wordes and the doynges of all the States of this Lond and our charge and in her name And he answered and said that he wyst welâ— that we wold noght say but as we were charged Sire ye remembre yowe wele that on Moneday in the fest of Seint Michell the Archaungell ryght here in this Chambre and in what presence ye renounsed and cessed of the state of Kyng and of Lordesship and of all the Dignite
Picardy ready to be transported into England But when it was certainly certified that King Richard was dead and that their enterprise of his deliverance was frustrate and void the Army scattered and departed asunder But when the certainty of King Richards death was declared to the Aquitaynes and Gascons the most part of the wisest men of the Country fell into a bodily fear and into a deadly dread for some lamenting the instability of the English people judged them to be spotted with perpetual infamy and brought to dishonour and loss of their antient fame and glory for committing so hainous a crime and detestable an offence against their King and Soveraign Lord. The memory whereof they thought would never be buried or extincted Others feared the loste of their goods and liberties because they imagined that by this civil dissension and intestine division the Realm of England should so be vexed and troubled that their Country if the Frenchmen should invade it should be destitute and left void of all aid and succour of the English Nation But the Citizens of Burdeaux took this matter very sore at stomach because King Richard was born and brought up in their City lamenting and crying out that since â—he beginning of the world there was never a more detestable or more villanous or hainous act committed which being sad with sorrow and inflamed with melancholy said that untrue unnatural and unmercifull people had betrayed and slain contrary to all Law and Justice and honesty a good man a just Prince and lawfull Governour beseeching God devoutly on their knees to be the revenger and punisher of that detestable offence and notorious crime 15ly The proceedings against King Richard the 2. in the Parliament of 1 H. 4. were in the Parliament of 1 E. 4. n. 9 10 11 12. condemned as illegal the Tyrannous usurpation of Henry the 4th with his hainous murdering of King Richard the 2. at large set forth his reign declared by Act of Parliament to be an intrusion and meer usurpation for which he and the heirs of his body are utterly dis inabled as unworthy to enjoy any inheritance estate or profits within the Realm of England or Dominions of the same for ever and that by this memorable Petition of the Commons wherein the pedigree of King Edward the 4th and his title to the Crown are likewise fully set forth a Record most worthy the publike view being never yet printed to my knowledge Ex Rotulo Parliamenti tenti apud Westm anno primo Edwardi Quarti n. 8. Memorandum quod quaedam Petitio exhibita fuit praefato Domino Regi in praesenti Parliamento per praefatos Communes sub eo qui sequitur tenore verborum For as much as it is notary openly and evidently known that the right noble and worthy Prince Henry King of England the third had issue Edward his furst gotten Son born at Westminster in the 15 kalende of Juyll in the vigille of Seint Marce and Marcellian the year of our Lord M. C.C.XLV the which Edw. after the death of the said King Henry his Fader entituled and called King Edward the furst had issue his furst gotten Son entituled and called after the decease of the same Edward the furst his Fader King Edward the second which had issue the right noble and honourable Prince King Edward the third true and undoubted King of Englond and of France and Lord of Irelond which Edward the third had issue Edward his furst gotten Son Prince of Wales William Hatfield secund gotten Son Leonel third gotten Son Duke of Clarence John of Gaunt fourth gotten son Duke of Lancaster Edmund Langley the fifth gotten son Duke of York Thomas Wodestoks the sixth gotten son Duke of Gloucester and William Wyndesore the seventh gotten Son And the said Edward Prince of Wales which died in the life of the said King Edward the thurd his Fader had issue Richard which after the death of the same King Edward the third as Cousin and heir to him that is to say Son to the said Edward Prince of Wales Son unto the said King Edward the third succeeded him in royal estate and dignity lawfully entituled and called King Richard the secund and died without issue William Hatfield the secund gotten Son of the said King Edward the third died without issue the said Leonel Duke of Clarence the third gotten Son of the same King Edward had issue Phelip his only daughter and died And the same Phelip wedded unto Edmund Mortimer Earl of Marche had issue by the same Edmund Roger Mortymer Earl of Marche her Son and heir which Edmund and Phelip died the same Roger Earl of March had issue Edmund Mortymer Earl of March Roger Mortymer Anne and Alianore and died And also the same Edmund and Roger sons of the foresaid Roger and the said Alianore died without Issue And the same Anne wedded unto Richard Earl of Cambridge the Son of the said Edmund Langley the fifth gotten son of the said king Edward the third as it is afore specified had issue that right noble and famous Prince of full worthy memory Richard Plantagenet Duke of York And the said Richard Earl of Cambridge and Anne his Wife died And the same Rich. Du. of York had issue the right high and mighty Prince Edward our Liege and Soveraign Lord and died to whom as Cousin and heir to the said King Richard the Crown of the Realm of England and the royal power estate dignity preheminence and governance of the same Realm and the Lordship of Ireland lawfully and of right appertaineth of the which Crown Royal power estate dignity preheminence governance and Lordship the said King Richard the second was lawfully rightfully and justly seised and possessed and the same joyed in rest and quiet without interruption or molestation unto the time that Henry late Earl of Derby son of the said Iohn of Gaunt the fourth gotten son of the said King Edward the third and younger Brother of the said Leonel temerously agenst rightwisnes and Iustice by force and Arms agenst his faith and liegeaunce rered werre at Flynte in Wales agenst the said King Richard him took and enprisoned in the Tower of London of grete violence And the same King Richard so being in prison and living usurped and intruded upon the royal power estate dignity preheminence possessions and Lordships aforesaid taking upon him usurpously the Crown and name of K. and L. of the same Realm and Lordship And not therewith satisfied or content but more grievous thing attempting wickedly of unnatural unmanly and cruel tyranny the same King Richard King anointed crowned and consecrate and his Liege and most high Lord in the Earth agenst Gods Law Mans liegeance and Oth of fidelite with uttermost punicion attormenting murdred and destroyed with most vile hainous and lamentable death whereof the heavy exclamation in the doom of every Christian man soundeth into Gods hearing in Heaven not forgotten in the Earth specially in this
advis and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commyns in the seid Parliament assembled and by authorite of the same declared approved ratified confirmed and accepted the seid title just good lawfull and true and thereunto gave his assent and agrreement of his free will and liberty And over that by the seid advis and auctorite declared affirmed and reputed the seid Richard Duke of York very true and rightfull heir to the Crowns Royal estate and dignite of the Realms of Englond France and Lordship of Irelond aforeseid And that according to the worship and reverence thereto belonging he should be taken accepted and repuâ—ed in worship and reverence by all the Estates and persons of the seid Realm of Englond The seid Usurper late called King Henry the sixth saving and reserving to himself the seid Crowns Realms royal estate dignite and preheminence of the same and the seid Lordship of Ireland during his life natural And further more by the same advice and authotiâ—e would consented and agreed that after his decease or when it should please him to lay from him the seid Crowns estate dignity and Lordship or thereof ceâ—â—ede the seid Richard Duke of York and his heirs should immediately succeed him in the seid Crowns Royal Estate dignity and Lordship and them then have and enjoy any Act of Parliament Statute Ordinance or any thing to the contrary made or interruption or discontinuance of possession notwithstanding And if any person or persons from thenceforâ—h imagined or compaced the death of the seid Richard Duke of York it be deemed and judged high Treason in manner and form as it is specified in the seid Act And that the seid Noble Prince Richard Duke of York by way and consideration of recompence for his abstaining for a time of the exercise of the seid royal power of the benigne and noble disposition that he bare to the said Common wele and to the rest and tronquillity of the seid Realm should have Castles Mannors lands and tenements to the value of 10 Mil. Marc. whereof the Earldom and City of Chester was parcel assigned to the said Duke by special Act made in the seid Parliament the which Earldom and City the seid Duke gave among other unto our seid Soveraign Lord then being Earl of March as parcel of Manors Lordships lands and tenements of the yearly value of 3 Mil. Marc. which by vertue of the seid convention and concord and the Act thereof made was given unto him for the sustentation of his estate abiding and persevering like a true Christian and honourable Prince in full purpose to keep and observe the seid Convention and concord for his party trusting verily that the seid Usurper Henry late called King Henry the sixth would have truly faithfully justly keped and observed for his party the same convention and concord inviolable as by Law reason Princely honour and duty he was bounden to doe and not have departed and varied from such convention made of so high and so great authority as it was made whereunto neither our seid Soveraign Lord ne the seid noble Prince assented but without prejudice of the seid right and ritle as it is plainly specified in the sâ—id Act made upon the seid convencion and Concord and under protestation and condition that the seid Usurpour shuld kepe and perform without fraude or male ingyne all things therein contained for his seid party declared openly by their mouths in the presens and heryng of the said Lords in the seid Parliament and therein enacted of Record at the grete instaunce and prayer of the same Usurpour late called King Henry the sixth And at the solempne request of all the seid Lords for the tender and special zele love and affection that he bare to the rest of the seid Realm and to the Commyn wele and policy thereof toke his viage of good blessed and vertuous intent and disposition toward the North parties of the said Realm to repress and subdue certain riots rebellions insurrections and commotions there begun And the premises notwithstanding the seid Henry Usurpour late called King Henry the sixth continuing in his old rancour malice using the fraud and malicious disceit and dissimulation agenst trouth and conscience that accord not with the honour of eny cristen Prince to th entent that the said Agrement concord and Act shuld take no due effect And into the frustacion of the same in the matiers and things above reherced that is to say that neither the seid Richard Duke shuld have ne enjoy the same Castells Manoirs lands and tenements name title reverence and worship above reherced neither he ne his sons and heirs succeed in the seid Corones Royal estate dignity lordship after the tenure fourm and effect of the said agreement concord and Act with all subtil imaginacions and disceitful ways and means to him possible intended and covertely laboured excited and procured the final destruction murdre and death of the said Richard Duke and of his Sons that is to sey of our seid new Soveraign Lord King Edward the fourth then Earl of March and of the noble Lord Edmund Earl of Ruthlande And for the execution of his dampnable and malicious purpose by writing and other messages moeved excited and stirred thereunto the Dukes of Excester and Somerset and other Lords being then in the North parties of this Realm whereupon at Wakefeld in the Shire of York the seid Duke of Somerset falsely and traiterously the same Noble Prince Duke of York on Teiusday the 30 day of Decemb. last passed horribly cruelly traiterously murdered And also the worthy and good Lords Edmund Earl of Ruthland Brother of our seid Soveraign Lord and Richard Earl of Salesbury And not therwith content of their insatiable malice after that they were dede made them to beheaded with abhomynable cruelte and horrible despite agenst all humanite and nature of Nobles And after that the same Henry Usurpour gretely and wonderfuly joying the seid dolorous and piteous murder of the same noble Prince and worthy Lords to the Realm an heavy and a lamentable sorrow and lost forthwith and oftentimes after openly declared to divers Lords of the same Realm That he would not in any wise kepe the seid Convencioun and accord ne the act thereof made and to the infraccion and violatiation of the said convention and concord not only sent Letters made under his prive Seal unto certain Knights and Squiers commaunding and charging them by the same to spoil and disseise our seid Soveraign Lord by the name of Earl of March of his possession of the seid Earldom and Citee of Chester whereof he was lawfully possessed and seased by vertue and reason of the seid Convencion and Concord but also of extreme violence utter and final breche of his party of the seid convencions and concord sent out writs under his Seal to the Mayer Aldermen and Commonalte of the Citee of London bering date the 22 day of Feverere last past and other like
is the power of binding the whole Nation by making altering or abolishing Laws without the Kings or Lords concurrent assents to whom they now absolutely deny any Negative voice making the Commons a compleat Independent Parliament of themselves therefore present all their Petitions add esses to them alone without any acknowledgment or notice of the House of Peers to whom they deny any right or title to sit or vote in Parliament unless they will first divest themselves of their Peerage and Barons right of Session and submit to stand for the next Knights and Burgesses place in the House of Common that shall fall void where if they may have any voice or influence the meanest Cobler Tinker Weaver Waterman shall be elected a Knight or Burgess sooner than the best and greatest Peer and every John of Leyden preferred before King or Prince Charls himself Sic Sceptra ligonibus aequant Which Petitions and Pamphlets of theirs have so puffed so bladdered up many Novices and raw Parliament-men in the Commons House unacquainted with the original Constitution bounds proceedings Laws Customs of the Parliaments of England that they begin to act vote dispose of the Army Navy c. without yea against the Lords not expecting their concurrence contrary to all former proceedings of Parliament the Lords just Privileges and their own Solemn League Covenant to maintain them which may prove very destructive to both Houses the Parliament King Kingdom oppressive to their Representatives the people who generally dislike it if not timely redressed and breed such a deadly feud between the Houses as may soon ruine them both and the Kingdom to boot The end of these Anabaptists Levellers Lilburnians being only to destroy the Parliament by setting both Houses at variance they inveighing as bitterly against the power proceedings Ordinances Votes Members undue Elections unequal Constitution of the House of Commons as they do against the Lords Hereupon they have most earnestly pressed in their Pamphlets their late Remonstrances Engagements from their Confederates and Agitators in the Army a speedy period and dissolution of this Parliament a new modelling and more equal distribution of the Members in the very House of Commons for the future c. All which Petitions Papers Remonstrances Pamphlets of theirs tending to the utter subversion of Parliaments the fundamental Laws Government of the Kingdom yea to an introduction of arbitrary popular Polarchy and Tyranny are rather to be ranked among and more agreeable to Jack Cades or the Earl of Straffords and Canterburies Treasons which they exceed by many degrees than to be slighted or countenanced as they are the keeping up the honour of our Peers the rights Privileges of both Houses within their just bounds without interfeiring or incroachment upon one another or invading the peoples Liberties being the only probable means of their of our preservation settlement security Upon which consideration I shall here endeavour as briefly yet fully as I may to vindicate the undoubted Right of the Lords or Peers of this Realm to sit vote in Parliament notwithstanding they are not elected by the people and to make good their right power of Judicature as well of Commoners as Peers against all the cavils of Jesuited Anabaptistical Levellers Lilburnians Sectaries Agitators whom I hope so farr to silence and stop their mouths if not convince their judgements that they shall never be able to reply hereunto SECTION 1. Proving the Lords antient undoubted Right to sit and vote in all English Parliaments with the Grounds thereof though not elected by the People THe sum of all these Levellers object against the Lords right of sitting voting judging in Parliament is this That they sit there only by Patent by the Kings will Tenure or descent not by the Peoples free Election alone as the Knights Citizens and Burgesses doe That the people never intrusted nor invested them with any power but the King That they represent themselves only not the Commons and are the Sons only of Conquest of Usurpation brought in by the Conquerour not of Choice and Election 1. To this I answer first That our Lords Dukes Earls Barons Nobles yea Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors too who held by Barony â—ate antiently in all our General National Councels and Parliamentary Assemblies many hundred of years before the Conquest both in the Britons and Saxons reigns by right of their Peerage and Tenures as now they doe as I have unanswerably proved in My Historical Collection of the antient Parliaments and Great Councils of England My Antiquity triumphing over Novelty p. 56. to 80. And in my 1 2 and 3. Parts of A Seasonable and Legal Vindication and Chronological Collection of the good old Fundamental Laws c. of all English Freemen Which is likewise attested by Modus tenendi Parliamentum Sir Edward Cook Vowel others and all our Historians Therefore this is a gross mistake That they are the Sons of Conquest introduced by the Conquerour The rather because in all Empires Kingdoms in the world though free and never conquered their Princes Dukes Nobles Lords and great Officers have ever sate in all their Parliaments Senates and General Councels of State by reason of their Honors and places only without any popular Elections as is clear by these Texts of Scripture 1 Chron. 23.1 2. c. 28.1 2. c. c. 29.1.6.24 2 Chron. 1 2 3. c. 5.3 4. c. c. 23.2 3.20 21. c. 30.2 3 6 12. c. 34.29 30. c. 35.7 8. Neh. 9.38 c. 10. Esther 1.13 to 22. Dan. 3.2 3. 2 Chro. 29.30 c. 32.3 Ezra 9.1 c. 10.8 1 Sam. 5.8 c. 29.3 to 10. Psa 68.27 Prov. 8.15.16 Isa 19.11 12 13. Jer. 17.25 c. 26.11.16 c. 36.12.14 c. 37.14 15. c. 38.4.25.27 Dan. 6.1 6 7 8. Jonah 3.7 Psa 2.2 Isa 1.23.26 compared together and by all Historians and Polititians testimonies 2. Secondly that they sit there only by the Kings Patent is false For first many Peers Nobles have been created in and by Parliament at the Commons earnest Petitions by Patents confirmed in Parliament of which there are many Presidents Secondly though the Kings Writ or Patent create others of them Peers Barons without the peoples consent yet the Laws and Statutes of the Realm made by the Commons consents and approved by the people allow the King this power yea authorize enjoyn all Lords Barons to sit in Parliament when thus creaned if there be no just exceptions taken to them by the Houses therefore though they are created Lords and sit in Parliament by the Kings Patents or Writs onely by way of instrument or conveyance yet originally they are made Lords and sit there only by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm to which all the people have consented of which more hereafter Thirdly all antient and new Cities Burroughs who send Citizens or Burgesses to Parliament and Counties who send Knights to Parliament were originally created and invested with this power to elect
Citizens Burgesses and Knights for the Parliament only by our Kings Letters and Charters not by the Peoples inherent Right of Election since none of them doe or can choose or send Knights Citizens or Burgesses to Parliament without the Kings Charters authorizing them and his Wrâ— to elect them first directed to them but only by power and vertue of them Therefore if the Lords sitting in Parliament be illegal unwarrantable because they sit only by Patents and Writs from the King the sitting of Knights Citizens Burgesses must be so too because they are elected only by the Kings Writ and the people enabled to elect them only by his Patents the power of creating Counties Cities Boroughs Knights being originally in the King as well as the power of creating Lords and Barons 3 Thirdly that the general election of the people is not absolutely necessary nor essential to the making of a Lawfull King Magistrate Counseller of State Peer Member of Parliament nor yet of a Minister as the Objectors falsly pretend who take it for granted as an infallible truth and Maxim of State For then it will necessarily ensue from hence 1. That God himself is no lawfull King or Governour over all the World and creatures in it because not chosen or elected by the General Voice of the Creatures and Mankind to be King over them and because the greatest part of men reject his Yoak Laws Government Exod. 5.2 Psal 2.1 2 3 4. Lu. 1.14.27 yet the Lord still reigneth as a Lawfull King over them by his own Right of Creatorship and Godhead Psal 95.3.5 Ps 96.10 Ps 97.1 Ps 99.1 Ps 100.3 Ps 103.15 Jer. 10.7 Dan. 4.32.34 Ps 10.16 Psal 22.28 Ps 48.7 2ly That Jesus Christ himself who is a King by birth-right Sonship and inheritance only being born King of the Jews sitting upon the throne of David his Father and reigning over the house of Jacob for ever by vertue of his Sonship only as Mat. 2.2 Lu. 1.32 33. Ps 2.6 7 8. Heb. 1.5 8 9. Acts 13.22 23 33. Ezech. 34.23 24. c. 37.24 25. Mar. 11.9.10 Isa 3.6 7. c. 11.1 2 c. Jer. 33. 15 17 20 21. c. 23.5 6. c. 30.4 Hos 3.5 Rev. 2.2 c. resolve was not chosen King â—is Saints Church Subjects people but chuseth them to be his Leiges John 15.16 Eph. 1.4 1 Pet. 2.9 Rev. 17.14 Deut. 14.2 Ps 132.13 Psal 135.4 shall upon this account be no lawfull King or Governor over his Saints Church and Subjects but a meer Usurper Intruder Tyrant over them as they stile Kings by Birthright not popular Election which is the highest blasphemy to affirm 3ly Then it will likewise inevitably follow That neither Moses Joshua Nehemiah Saul David Solomon nor any of the pious Kings of Juda nor Christ himself and other Kings who came to the Crown by Gods immediate designation or by descent birth-right and lineal succession were just lawfull Governors or Kings which none dare averr That the 70. Elders the Princes Nobles chief Captains Judges and Rulers under Moses and their Kings with other Governours and the Jewish Sanhedrim were no lawfull Judges Magistrates Counsellers of State or Members of their general Congregations Parliaments assemblies since we read of none of them chosen by the people but only designed by God himself or made created such by their Kings Governours who both called and summoned them to their general congregations assemblies judicatures as the premised texts and others evidence That Joseph Mordecai Daniel Shadrac Mesec Abednego were no lawfull Rulers or Magistrates because made such even by Heathen Kings not by the peoples choice And that none of the Levites Priests High Priests or Prophets under the Law were lawfull because none of them that we read of were made Levites Priests High Priests or Prophets by the peoples own choice but by descent and succession in the selfsame Tribe or by Gods own immediate call and appointment as John Baptist Christ himself the Apostles the 70 Disciples and others under the Gospel were made Ministers Apostles Evangelists preaching Elders without the peoples call yet our opposites dare not deny their Ministry and Apostleship to be lawfull being not of men but by Gods and Christs own call without the peoples Fourthly then it will from hence also follow that all Hereditarie Kingdoms which Politicians and Divines generally hold the best of Governments being the title of Christ himself to his kingdom all Patents Commissions in all Empires Kingdoms States of the world creating Princes Dukes Earls Lords and such like Titles of Honour whereby they are inabled in all Christian kingdoms to sit vote in their Parliaments and Assemblies of State for making Privy Counsellers Judges Justices and other Magistrates are void null illegal and so all the Laws Orders Ordinances made Acts done and Judgments given by them are void or erroneous because they were not chosen called to these publike places Counsels Judicatures by the people but by Emperors Kings and Supreme Governours of 〈◊〉 and what a confusion such a Paradox as this would â—â—eed in all our Realms in all States Kingdoms of the world let wise men consider and those fools too who make this Objection 5. Fifthly if there be no lawfull Authority in any State but from the Peoples immediate election then it will necessarily follow that Sir Thomas Fairfax is no lawfull General his Officers Councell of Warr no lawfull Officers or Councel yea Colonell and Lieutenant Colonell Lilburn no lawfull Colonel or Lieutenant-Colonel and ought not to use or retain these titles as they doe because none of them were called chosen to those places by the People or common Souldiers but made such by Commission from the Parliament General or Lords alone 6. Sixthly This paradox of theirs touching the peoples choice call to inable Peers to sit in Parliament or bear any office of Magistracy or Judicature is warranted by no law of God in old or new Testament both which contradict it by no Laws or Statutes of these Kingdoms Nations which absolutely disclaim it and enact the contrarie by no Original Law of Nature which as all Polititians and Divines assert and the Scripture manifests at first gave everie Father a Magistratical and Judicial rule power over his children progeny Family and made him a King Prince Lord over them without either their choice or call the Father and first-born of the family being both the King Prince Lord over it and Priest to it from the Creation till the Law was given as is generally acknowledged by all Divines as God himself is King over all the earth world as Creator and Father thereof 7ly It is very observable that God himself expresly denied to his own people Israel the free election of their Kings and Supreme Governors reserving the choice of them only to himself as his own Prerogative witness that notable text of
and chief men in the Parliament together with the evident testimonie of the twelve Peers c. The reason is Because there was wont to be a cry or murmur in the Parliament for the Kings absence because his absence is hurtfull and dangerous to the whole Commonalty of the Parliament and Kingdom Neither indeed ought or may he be absent but only in the case aforesaid After which it follows The Archbishops Bishops and other chief of the Clergy ought to be summoned to come to the Parliament and also EVERY EARL and BARON and their PEERS OUGHT TO BE SUMMONED and COME TO THE PARLIAMENT c. Touching the beginning of the Parliament The Lord the King shall sit in the midst of the great bench and is bound to be present in the first and last day of Parliament And the Chancellort Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer and Justices were wont to record the defaults made in Parliament according to the order following In the third day of the Parliament the Barons of the Cinqueports shall be called and afterwards the BARONS of England after them the EARLS Whereupon if the Barons of the Cinqueports be not come the Baronie from whence they are shall be amerced at an hundred marks and an Earl at one hundred pounds After the same manner it must be done to those who are Peers to Earls and Barons After which it relates the manner of placing the Earls Baron and Peers in Parliament Then adds The Parliament may be held and OUGHT every day to begin at one of the clock in the afternoon at which time the King is to be present at the Parliament and all the Péers of the Kingdome None of all the Peers of the Parliament may or ought to depart alone from the Parliament unless he have obtained and that in full Parliament leave from the King and all his Péers so to doe and that withall there be a remembrance kept in the Parliament roll of such Leave and Libertie granted And if any of the Peers during the term of the Parliament shall be sick or weak so as he is not able to come to the Parliament then he ought three dayes together send such as may excuse him to the Parliament or else two Peers must go and view him and if they find him sick then he may make a Proxie Of the Parliament the King is the Head the beginning and ending So this Treatise The Statute of 5 R. 2. Parl. 2. ch 4. enacts by Command of the King and Assent of the Prelates Lords and Eommons in Parliament That all and singular persons and Commonalties which from henceforth shall have the Summons of the Parliament shall come from henceforth to the Parliament in the manner as they be bound to doe and hath been accustomed within the Realm of England of old time And every person of the said Realm which from henceforth shall have the said Summons be he Archbishop Bishop Abbot Prior Duke Lord Baron Baronet Knight of the Shire Citizen of City Burgess of Burgh or other singular person or Commonalty do absent himself or come not at the said Summons except he may reasonably or honestly excuse himself to our Soveraign Lord the King he shall be amerced and otherwayes punished according as of old time hath béen used to be done within the said Realm in the said case Which relates unto and agrees expresly with that forecited out of Modus tenendi Parliamentum which took it out of this Act. If then all the Lords Peers in Parliament are bound to attend in Parliament being oft times there all called for by name and ought not to depart from it without the Kings and Houses leave under pain of Amercement and other punishment as this Statute resolves and 3 Ed. 3.19 Fitzh Coron 161. Stamford l. 3. c. 1. f. 153. Cook 4 Instit p. 15 16 17.43 28 E. 3. Nu. 1 2. 5 R. 2. n. 2. 8 H. 4. n. 55. and 31 H. 6. n. 45. Where fines were imposed on absent Lords most fully mamanifest then questionless they ought of right to sit in Parliament else it were the height of Injustice thus to fine them In the tenth year of King R. 2. this King absented himself from his Parliament then sitting at Westminster residing at Eltham about forty daies and refusing to come to the Parliament and yet demanding from them four Fifteens for maintenance of his Estate and outward Warres Whereupon the whole body of the Parliament made this answer That unless the King were present they would make therein no allowance Soon after they sent the Duke of Glocester and Bishop of Ely Commissioners to the King to Eltham who declared to him among other things in the Lords and Commons behalf how that by an old Ordinance they have an Act if the King absent himself 40 dayes not being sick but of his own mind not heeding the charge of his people nor their great pains and will not resort to the Parliament they may then lawfully return to their Houses And now sir said they you have been absent a longer time and yet refuse to come amongst us which is greatly to our discontent To which the King answered Well we do consider that our own people and Commons go about to rise against us wherefore we think we can do no better than to ask aid of our Cosen the French King and rather to submit us to him than unto our own subjects The Lords answered Sir that Counsell is not best but a way rather to bring you into danger c. By whose good perswasions the King was appeased and promised to come to the Parliament and condiscend to their Petitions and according to his appointment he came and so the Parliament proceeded which else had dissolved by the Lords departure thence in discontent aâ—d the Kings wilfull absence Ranulf de Glanvil the first writer of our Common Laws in his Prologue to his book De legibus consuetuainibus Regni Angliae used in the reign of King H. the 2. under whom he flourished and his Predecessors writes thus of the Parliamentary Councils in that age and their Members power to enact Laws Leges Anglicanas licet non scriptas leges appellari non videtur absurdum cum hoc ipsum Lex sit quod Principi placet et legis habet vigorem eas scilicet quas super dubiis in Consilio desiniendis Procerum quidem Concilio et principis accidente authoritate constat esse promulgatas And lib. 13. cap. 32. f. 110. Cum quis itaque infra assisam Dom. Reg. id est infra tempus A Dom. Rege de consilio Procerum adhoc constitutum quod quandoque majus quandoque minus censetur So as the Parliaments under this King and his Ancestors consisted only of the King and Nobles who then made and enacted Laws by the Kings royal assent without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses elected by the people of which I find no mention in the Parliamentary Councils under
be both Judge and Party it behoveth of Right that the King should have COMPANIONS for to hear and determine IN PARLIAMENTS all Writs and Plaints of the Wrongs of the King of the Queen and of their Children and of those especially who otherwise could not have common right concerning their wrongs These Companions are now called Counts after the Latine word Comites For the good Estate of the Realm King Alfred assembled the COUNTS or Earls and ordained by a Perpetual Law that twice a year or oftner they should assemble at London in Parliament to consult of the Government of the people of God c. By which Estate or Parliament many Laws and Ordinances were made which be there recites Bracton l. 1. c. 8. l. 2. c. 16. l. 3. c. 9. in Henry the 3d. his reign and Fleta l. 2. c. 2. p. 66. write thus in Edw. the first his reign in the same words Habet enim Rex cuâ—iaÌ„ suam in concilio suo in Parliamentis suis PRAESENTIBUS Praelatis COMITIBUS BARONIBUS PROCERIBUS aliis viris peritis ubi terminatae sunt dubitationes judiciorum novis injuriis emersis nova constituuntur remedia And l. 17. c. 17. he writes thus Rex in populo regendo superiores habet Videlicet Legem per quam est Rex Curiam suam to wit of Parliament videlicet COMITES BARONES Comites enim à Comitia dicuntur qui cum viderint Regem sine froeno Froenum sibi apponere TENENTVR ne clament subditi Domine Jesu Christe in Chamo froeno maxillas eorum constringe Sir Tho. Smith in his Commonwealth of England l. 2. c. 1. John Vowel and Ralph Holinshed vol. 1. c. 6. p. 173. Mr. Cambden in his Britannia p. 177. John Minshaw in his Dictionary Cowel in his Interpreter Title Parliament Powel in his Attorneys Accademy and others unanimously conclude That the Parliament consisteth of the KING the LORDS SPiRITUAL and TEMPORAL and the Commons which STATES represent the body of all England which make but one Assembly or Court called the Parliament and is of all other the Highest and greatest Authority and hath the most high and absolute power of the Realm And that no Parliament is or can be holden without the King and Lords Mr. Crompton in his Jurisdiction of Courts affirms particularly of the High Court of Parliament f. 1. c. This Court is the highest Court of England in which the King himself sits in person and comes there at the beginning and end of the Parliament and at any other time when he pleaseth ordering the Parliament To this Court come all the Lords of Parliament as well Spiritual as temporal and are severally summoned by the Kings writ at a certain day and place assigned The Chancellor of England and other great Officers or Judges are there likewise present together with the Knights Citizens and Burgesses who all ought to be personally present or else to be amerced and otherwise punished if they come not being summoned unles good cause be shewed or in case they depart without the Houses or Kings special license after their appearance before the Sessions ended And he resolves That the King Lords and Commons doe all joyntly make up the Parliament and that no Law nor Act of Parliament can be made to bind the subject without all their concurrent assents Sir Edward Cook not only in his Epistle before his ninth Report and Institutes on Littleton p. 109 110. But likewise in his 4. Institutes published by Order of the Commons themselves this present Parliament c. 1. p. 1 2. c. writes thus of the high and Honourable Court of Parliament This Court consisteth OF THE KINGS MAJESTIE sitting there as in his royal politick capacity and of the three Estates of the Realm viz. Of the Lords Spiritual Archbishops and Bishops being in number 24. who sit there in respect of their Counties or Baronies parcel of their Bishopricks which they hold also in their politick capacity and every one of these when the Parliament is to be holden ought ex debito Justitiae to have a writ of summons The LORDS TEMPORAL Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons who sit there by reason of their dignities which they hold by descent or creation And likewise EVERY ONE OF THESE being of full age OUGHT TO HAVE a writ of summons EX DEBITO JUSTITIAE The third Estate are the Commons of the Realm whereof there be Knights of Shires or Counties Citizens of Cities and Burgesses of Boroughs All which are respectively elected by the Shires or Counties Cities and Boroughs by force of the Kings writ ex debito Justitiae and none of them ought to be omitted and these represent all the Commons of the whole Realm and trusted for them and are in number at this time 403. He adds And it is observed that when there is best appearance there is the best successe in Parliament At the Parliament holden in the 7. year of H. 5. holden before the Duke of Bedford Guardian of England of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal there appeared but 30. in all at which Parliament there was but one Act of Parliament passed and that of no great weight In An. 50 E. 3. all the Lords appeared in person and not one by Proxy at which Parliament as appeareth by the Parliament Roll so many excellent things were sped and done that it was called Bonum Parliamentum And the King and these three estates are the great Corporation or body of the kingdom and doe sit in two Houses and of this Court of Parliament the King is Caput Principium Finis The Parl. cannot begin but by the Royal presence of the King either in person or representation by a Gardian of England or Commissioners both of them appointed under the great Seal of England c. And 42 E. 3. Rot. Parl. num 7. It is declared by the Lords and Commons in full Parliament upon demand made of them on the behalf of the King That they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the disinherison of the King and his Crown whereunto they were sworn And p. 35. he hath this special observation That it is observed by antient Parliament men out of Records that Parliaments have not succeeded well in five cases First when the King hath been in difference with his Lords with his Commons Secondly When any of the great Lords were at variance between themselves Thirdly When there was no good correspondence between the Lords and Commons Fourthly When there was no unity between the Commons themselves in all which our present Parliament is now most unhappy and so like to miscarry and succeed very ill Fifthly When there was no preparation for the Parliament before it began every of which he manifests by particular instances From all these and sundry other Authorities it is most evident and transparent That both the King himself and Lords ought of
the Commons may sit alone as Cyphers but not as a Parliament or Council to vote impose or act any thing that is binding to the people since regularly they neither are nor ever yet were in any age no more a Parliament in any case without the King and Lords then the King and Lords alone are now a Parliament though antiently they were so of themselves without the Commons or the trunk of a man a perfect man without head or shoulders If 3. be joyntly impowred or commissioned to do any act by Commission Deed or Warrant any one or two of them can doe nothing without the third If many be in Commission of the Peace Sewers or the like three of the Quorum joyntly to act therein joyntly if any one of the three be absent or dead all the rest can doe nothing because their authority is joynt not single In Parliament it self if either house appoint a Committee of 3 5 or 7. to examine act or execute any thing if but one of this number be absent or put out the rest can doe nothing that is legal or valid even by course of Parliament neither can either House sit and vote as a House unlesse there be so many Members present as by the Law and custom of Parliament will make up an House as every mans experience can inform him If these Levellers then will absolutely cut off or exclude the King or Lords from the Parliament they absolutely null and dissolve it and the Act for continuing this Parliament cannot make nor continue the Commons alone together as a Parliament no more than the Lords or King alone without the Commons the King or either house alone being no Parliament but both conjoyned and enlivened with the Kings personal or representative presence The cutting off the head alone or of the head and shoulders altogether destroys and kills the body Politick and Parliament as well as the body natural If the King dies or resigns his Crown or be deposed the Parliament thereby is actually dissolved as it was resolved in the Parl. of 1 H. 4. n 1 2 3. 1 H. 5. n. 26. 4 E. 4.44 and Cooks 4 Institutes p. 46. The last Parliament of 21 Jac. dissolved by his death So if the Lords or Commons dissolve and leave their House without any adjournment or if the King by his Writ dismisse or dissolve either of the Houses the Parliament is thereby dissolved as the forecited Presidents and the latter clause of the writ for the election of Knights and Burgesses manifests And a new kind of Parliament consisting only of Commoners when the old one only within the Act for continuing this Parliament made up both of King Lords and Commons is dissolved neither will nor can be supported or warranted by the Letter or intention of this Law or any other Law custom or right whatsoever Ninthly All the Petitions of the Commons in all antient modern Parliaments to the King Peers for their redresse of grievances recorded in our antient Parliamentary Rolls The usual Prologue to most of our antient printed Statutes in the Statutes at large in Poulton The King at the request of the Commons of or by the assent of the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and other great men there assembled hath ordained these things or Acts underwritten all Acts of Parliament now extant usually running in this form The King with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament hath ordained And be it enacted by the Kings moct excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in this present Parliament assembled The famous Petition of Right 3 Car. so much insisted on beginning thus Humbly shew unto our Soveraign Lord the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled thus answered by the King Let right be done as is desired The Act for continuing this Parliament made by the King and Lords as well as by the Commons who never intended to exclude themselves out of this Parliament by that Act or that it should continue if either of them were quite dismembred from it with all Acts and Ordinances since Yea the very Protestation and Solemn League and Covenant taken by the Commons Lords and prescribed by them to all others throughout the three kingdoms which couple the Lords and Commons always together neither of them alone being able to make any binding Act nor Ordinance to the Subjects unlesse they both concurr and have the Kings royal assent thereto no more than one Member alone of the House can make a House and ranck the Lords always before the Commons and the King before them both so firmly hold forth establish the Lords and Kings undoubted Rights to sit and Vote in Parliament and decry this new invented Monopoly of a sole Parliament of Commons without King or Lords and that absolute Sovereign Power these Lilburnists new Lights have spied out and set up for them in Utopia that impudency it self would blush to vent such mad absurd irrational Frenzies and Paradoxes as these crack brain'd persons dare to publish and they may with as much truth and reason argue that one man is three that the Leggs and trunk of a man are a perfect man without head neck arms and shoulders or that the Leggs Ribs Bowels of the Body are and ought to be placed above the head neck shoulders as that the House of Commons are or ought to be an entire Parliament the sole Legislative Power the only Supreme Authority paramount both King and Lords who must not now have so much as a Negative voice to deny or contradict any of the Commons Votes or Ordinances though never so rash unjust dishonourable prejudicial or dangerous to the whole Kingdom as these new Dogmatists affirm Tenthly The Commons themselves in their joynt Declaration and Resolution with the Lords this Parliament concerning his Majesties late Proclamation 9 August 1642. printed by their special order declare and stile his House of Péers to be the Hereditary Counsellors of the Kingdom The like they declare in their Declaration of 16 January 1642. Mr. John Pym in his Speech at Guildhall in London 14 January 1642. made and printed by the Commons special order asserted That the Lords have an Hereditary interest in making Laws in this Kingdom The Commons House in their Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom 15 December 1641. affirm That the Peers are the Kings Great Council That the King summoned the Great Council of Péers to meet at York the 24. of September and there declared a Parliament to begin the 3. of November following In which Parliament when the Lords and Commons met they add But what can we the Commons doe without the conjunction of the House of Lords and what conjunction can we expect there when the Bishops and Recusant Lords are so numerous and prevâ—lent thereby confessing that without the Lords concurrence who are the Great Council of the Realm the
should alwayes be summoned to and bear chief sway in our Parliaments in respect of their Peerage Power Nobility only without the peoples election This reason of their sitting in Parliament we find expresly recorded in Bracton l. 2. c. 16. fol. 34. and in Fleta l. 1. c. 17. The King say they hath a Superiour namely God also the Law bâ— which he is made a King likewise his Court to wit THE EARLS BARONS because they are called Counts as being the KINGS FELLOWS and he who hath a Fellow hath A MASTER And therefore if the King shall be without a bridle that is without a Law debent ei frâ—num imponere THEY OUGHT TO IMPOSE A BRIDLE ON HIM c. which the Commons being persons of less power and interest were unable to do Andrew Horn in his Mirrour of Justice ch 1. § 2.3 renders the like reason In all the contests in Parliaments and Wars between K. John Hâ—n 3. Edw. 2. Rich. 2. concerning Magna Charta the Charter of the Forest the Liberties Properties of the Subjects and opposition of unjust Taxes Ayds Exactions the Lords and Barons were the Ring-leaders the chief Opposers of these Kings Usurpations Exactions and Encroachments on the Great Charters Laws Rights Liberties of the people as all our Histories and Records relate whence they stile the Wars in their times THE BARONS WARS and before this the Nobles were the principal Actors in resisting the Tyranny of K. Sigebert and K. Bernard and dethroning them for their misdemeanours as is clear by Mat. Westminster in his Flores Historiarum An. 756. 758. To give some pregnant Instances of this kind not vulgarly known or taken notice of to clear this truth beyond contradiction Upon the death of William Rufus An. 1100. Magnates the Nobles of England not knowing what was become of Robert Duke of Normandy who had been 5. years absent in the holy Warrs thereupon Henry his Brother Congregato Londoniis Clero Angliae populo universo to wit the Lords Spiritual and Temporal expressed by these terms not the inferiour Clergy Knights Citizens Burgesses and Commons of the Realm as some Antiquaries and others mistake who derive their sitting in Parliaments from the beginning of this Kings reign promisit emendationem legum quibus oppressa fuerat Anglia tempore Patris sui Fratris nuper defuncti ut animos omnium in sui promotionem accenderet et amorem et illum in Regem susciperent et patronum Ad haec CLERO respondente et MAGNATIBUS CUNCTIS the Clerus populus there summoned quod si animo volente ipsis vellet concedere et Charta sua communire illas Libertates et Consuetudines antiquas quae floruerunt in Regno tempore Regis Edwardi in ipsum consentirent et in Regem unanimiter consecrarent Henrico autem libenter annuente et se id facturum cum juramento affirmante consecratus est in Regem favente Clero et populo cui continuo à Mauritio Londonensi Episcopo et à Thoma Eboracensi Archiepiscopo corona capiâ—i imponitur Cum fuerat diademate insignitus has Libertates subscriptas in regno ad exaltationem sanctae Ecclesiae et pacem populi tenendas concessit His Charter is recorded at large in Matthew Paris Bromton and others It begins thus Henricus Dei Graâ—ia Rex Angliae c. Sciatis me Dei misericordia Communi Consilio Baronum Regni Angliae Regem esse coronatum which proves that the Clerus Angliae Populus forementioned were only the Spiritual and Temporal Barons not ordinary Clergy and Commons as contradistinguished from them et quia regnum oppressum erat injustis exactionibus Ego respectu Dei et amore quam erga vos omnes habeo sanctam Dei Ecclesiam liberam facio c. et omnes malas consuetudines quibus Regnum Angliae injuste opprimebatur inde aufero quis malas consuetudines in parte hic pono Si quis Baronum meorum Comitum c. Lagam Regis Edwardi vobis reddo cum illis emendationibus quibus Pater meus eam emendavit Consilio Baronum suorum This Charter was subscribed by all the Bishops Earls Nobles and Barons of England Et factae sunt tot Chartae quot sunt Comitatus in Anglia et Rege jubente positae in Abbatiis singulorum Comitatuum ad monimentum So Matthew Paris relates William of Malmsbury records In regem electus est aliquantis tamen ante controversiis INTER PROCERES agitatis atque sopitis Which done aliquarum moderationem legum revocavit in solidum Sacramento suo et OMNIUM PROCERUM ne luderentur corroboravit Simeon Dunelmensis records that Consecrationis suae die Sanctam Dei Ecclesiam liberam fecit ac omnes malas consuetudines et injustas exactiones quibus regnum Angliae opprimebatur abstulit Legem Regis Edwardi omnibus in commune reddidit c. MAJORES NATU ANGLIAE MAGNATES TERRAE CONGREGAVIT LONDONIAE The Chronicle of Bromton records the same in the self-same words and so doth Henry Knyghton de Eventibus Angliae l. 2. c. 8 9. Polychron l. 7. c. 12. Roger de Hoveden Annal. pars 1. p. 468. and that the Lords procured this Charter King Stephen being elected and crowned King à PRIMORIBUS REGNI against his own and their former Oaths Omnes tam Praesules quam Comites et Barones qui filiae Regis et suis haeredibus juraverant Fidelitatem consensum Stephano praebentes In pursuance of his Coronation Oath Anno 1136. EPISCOPOS PROCERES REGNI SUI regali Edicto in unum convenire praecepit cum quibus GENERALE CONCILIUM CELEBRAVIT Oxoniis Wherein he confirmed all their Laws and Liberties by a special Charter in which there are these Clauses among others Sanctam Ecclesiam liberam esse concedo et debitam reverentiam illi conservo Omnes exactiones et injustitias et meschemingas sive per Vicecomites sive per alios quoslibet male inductas funditus extirpo Bonas leges et antiquas et justas consuetudines in hundris placitis et aliis causis observabo et observari praecipio et constituo This Charter was subscribed by all the Bishops Earls and Barons who procured it in this Common Council at Oxford Which they promised inviolably to observe generaliter se servaturum juravit sed nihil horum quae Deo promiserat observavit writes Matthew Paris Henry Huntindon Holinshed and others observe that the Archbishops Bishops and Nobles who contrary to their Oaths of Allegiance to Henry the 1. Mawde and their heirs elected Stephen King for this their detestable perjury soon after came to exemplary ends especially Roger the great Bishop of Salisbury qui secundum illud Sacramentum praefatum fecerat et omnibus aliis praedicaverat unde justo Deo judicio postea ab eodem Stephano quem creavit in Regem captus et excruciatus miserandum sortitus est
of Attainders in cases of high Treason did not institute them Judges of these persons nor give them any share in the judicial right and power of Parliaments 1. Because most of these persons thus attainted by Bill were Queens Dukes Earls Lords Barons and Peers of the Realm who were triable to be judged only by their Peers none else by the Common Law of England Magna Charta c. 29. and sundry other Acts not by the Commons who are not their Peers 2ly Because most of these parties thus attainted by those Bills were first attainted tried judged condemned in Parliament by the Lords alone as their proper Judges upon the complaints or impeachments of the Lords Appellants or of the Commons themselves or else before some other Judges upon indictments and legal tryals and those Acts did only confirm and ratifie their precedent attainders recited in them 3ly Because in many of these Acts the Commons did only petition that their Attainders might be ratified by Bill and the King and Lords assents thereto which was done at their request as Petioners not Judges 4ly Because their Judgements and Attainders passed formerly by the Lords and Judges were good in Law though thus ratified afterwards by Bill for the greater terror certainty and satisfaction and these Bills did pass no new Judgements and Attainders upon the parties but only ratifie the old and in cases where there was no precedent Attainder they attaint them only by vertue of their Legislative power without any indictment tryal or hearing of the parties themselves as Judges of them some of them being dead when attainted taking all the charges in the Bills pro confesso and notoriously true and proved such by some other precedent legal convictions and evidences 2ly There is a formal proper Judgement given in our Parliaments both in criminal and civil causes upon complaints Articles Petitions Impeachments Inditements Informations Writs Appeals Reports References and that either against or concerning Peers themselves or against or concerning Commoners and other Laicks or Clergy-men And in all such cases proceedings the King and Lords alone have a proper judiciary power or right of Judicature without the Commons vested in and executed by them which I shall abundantly evidence and make good by sundry memorable Presidents out of our Histories and Records in all ages not vulgarly known and for the most part never yet remembred by any who have wriâ—ten of our Parliaments and the proceedings in them whose Treatises are very slight unsatisfactory and in many things of this nature erronious I shall begin first with presidents concerning Ecclesiastical Temporal Lords alone proceeded against impeached judged censured in our Parliaments for sundry criminal causes Offences Treasons wherin the House of Commons can challenge no share or voice in the Judicature especially in the case of Temporal Lords who are such in their own right and sit in Parliament ratione Nobilitatis but the Lords alone and that by the express Letter and Resolution of the Great Chariers of King John and of King Henry 3. and Ed. 1. c. 14.29.15 E. 3. c. 2 3 4. and roâ— Parl. n. 6.8.11 R. 2. rot Parl. n. 6 7.5 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 12.28 H. 6. ror Parl. n. 51 52 53. 20 H. 6. c. 9.26 H. 8. c. 13.28 H. 8. c. 7.18.31 H. 8. c. 12.32 H. 8. c. 4.33 H. 8. c. 12 20 23.35 H. 8. c. 2.1 Ed. 6. cap. 12. 1 Mar. c. 6.1 2 Phil. Mar. c. 3.4 5 Phil. Mar. c. 4.1 Eliz. c. 1.5.5 Eliz. c. 11.13 Eliz. c. 1.14 Eliz. c. 1 2 3. 18 El. c. 1.23 El. c. 1 2.27 El. c. 2.3 E. 3.19 Fit Corone 16â— 1 H. 4.1.10 E. 4.6 Brooke Trial 142. Stamford l. 3. c. 1. f. 152.33 H. 8. Brookâ— Trial 142.34 H. 8. Bro Corone 172.13 H. 8.11 Br. Treasons 29.38 H. 8. Br. Treasons 2.33 Dyer 99.107.208.360 Cook 6 Rep. f. 52.9 Rep. f. 30.87 and Cooks 2 Instit f. 28 29 48 49 50. and his 3 Instit c. 1. 2. p. 27 28 29.30 31. All which declare enact resolve That the Peers of this Realm shall not be tried or proceeded against but only by the lawfull judgement and verdict of their Peers The Lords and Barons of Parliaments trial by Peers alone of their own rank being so essential that they cannot waive nor put themselves upon the trial of the Country by 12. ordinary Freeholders as was resolved in the Lord Dacres case Pa. 26 H. 8. Cooks 3 Institutes f. 30. much less then can they waive their Peerage it self and sit as Commoners in the Commons house as I have formerly proved The first president I meet with in our Histories of this nature is in the reign of Cassibelan the British King who having repulsed Julius Caesar upon his first landing in this Island and forced him to return into France Edictum fecit ut omnes Proceres Britanniae convenirent to the City of â—roynovant now London where Evelin nephew to Androgens Duke of Troynovant slaying Heralgas nephew to Cassibelan upon a sudden quarrel as they were playing together Cassibelan thereupon commanded Evelin to be brought before him talem sententiam quam Proceres regni judicarent subire which Androgeus opposing â—aying sese suam Curiam habere in illa diffiniri debere quicquid aliquis in homines suos clamaret thereupon Cassibelan threatned to waste his Country with fire and sword if he refused to deliver up his Nephew to justice to undergo the sentencâ— quam Proceres dictarent which he accordingly executed for refusing to put his Nephew upon the Trial and Judgement of the Nobles for this murder The next president I find is that of Wilfrid Archbishop of York who for refusing to divide his Bishoprick into two Bishopricks more and for endeavouring to perswade Queen Emburga to become a Nun and desert her husband Egfrid King of Northumberland was through that Queens malice and prosecution in two several Parliamentary Councils Anno 678. 692. twice deprived of his Archbishoprick and banished the Realm by King Egfrid Theodor Archbishop of Canterbury and the rest oâ— the Bishops and Nobles of the Realm assembled in these Councils and at last restored to his Archbishoprick again in another Council An. 705. by King Osred his will and consent About the year of our Lord 924. Elfred a Nobleman who opposed Aethelstans title and election to the Crown though in vain intended to seise upon him at Winchester and put out his eyes but his Treason being discovered he was apprehended and sent to Rome to purge himself thereof by Oath where he abjuring the fact before the Altar of St. Peter in the presence of Pope John the 10th fell down suddenly to the ground as dead and being thereupon carried away thence to the English School he there expired within 3 dayes after The Pope acquainting the King therewith and craving his advice what to do with him and whether he should have Christian burial the King thereupon
iâ— regno Quid mihi suaderet vos prodere vel certe necare qui nihil lucri reciperem de vestra morte Nunquid hostes â—estri me ditiorem facerent in terra sua quam effectus sum in terra vestra et in natali solo Aut si regnum affectarem credendu â—ne est post vestram inteâ—fectinnem quod absit Dominos hujus Regni aquâ—nimiter ferre me posse Domini mei et patriae proâ—â—torem Deliâ—ere si placet fidem â—arâ—â—alia â—lerenâ—bus quia paratus sum more militis contra quemcunque mundi mihi in hac causa adversantem pugnare et meam innocentiam defendere et purgare Upon which and other words the King believed the Duke and received his excuses and committed the Frier at his request to the Custodie of the Lord John Holland usque ad diem quo causam diceret horum quae praeposuerat contra eum In ipsa nocte quae processit diem suae responsioniâ— the Frier was strangled and pressed to death by the said John and another Knight and the next day his dead corps was drawn through the street like a Traytor to take away the suspition of his unjust death Ipsi judices ipsi ministri ipsi tortores extiterunt Et hic fructus Parliamenti praesentis praeter hoc quod dominus Willielmus la Zouche quamvis gravissima detineretur aegritudine accersitus erat ad Parliamentum ad standium judicio Regis et Dominorum quia idem â—rater eum velut inventorem inceptorem et incentorem dixerat omnium quae scripserat extitisse Qui cum venisset lectica delatus quia propter guttam equitare non poterat compulsus est discinctus et discooperto capite ad haec omnia sibi objecta more latronum vel proditorum respondere Qui viriliter negavit objecta Sacramento firmans haec nunquam audisse vel hujusmodi cogitasse et ita demum absolutus est et domum redire permissus In this Parliament holden at Salisbury 7 R. 2. rot Parl. n. 11. to 16. John Cavendish a Fishmonger of London made his complaint first to the Commons and after to the Lords against Sir Michael de la Poole Chancellor of England demanding the Peace against him which THE LORDS granted after which he accused him for taking Bribes and delayes and injustice in a sute of his depending before him whereof he cleared himself by his own Oath and the Oaths of other witnesses sworn and examined before THE LORDS Whereupon the Lords being troubled with other weighty matters referred the Chancellors reparation for the Scandal to the ordering of the Judges The same Sir Michael de la Pole Earl of Suffolk and Chancellor of England in the Parliament of 10 R. 2. rot Parliamenti n. 6. to 18. was accused in full Parliament before THE KING BISHOPS LORDS by the Commons who exhibited sundry Articles against him recorded at large by Henry de Knyghton agreeing with the Parliament Roll. The effect of them was this That whiles he was Chancellor against his Oath to procure the profit of the King he had purchased lands and tenements of the King of great value at under rates and exchanged uncertainâ— customs and rents for good lands in deceipt of the King and for spending the Aids granted to the King the last Parliament to guard the Seas in another manner than they were granted whereby the Seas were not guarded and much mischief hapned to the Realm c. The Lords Commons refused to act any thing till the King came in person to Parliament and the Chancellor removed upon these Articles The Chancellor demanded of the LORDS 1. Whether he should answer these Articles without the Kings presence for things done whiles he was Chancellor for that he being Chancellor of England for the time represented the Kings person in Parliament during his absence thence Secondly Whether his Brother in Law Sir Richard Scroope might not answer for him whom he had by advice of his Counsel appointed to do it To which the LORDS answered and resolved It was honest and fit for him to answer for himself Whereupon he making protestation that he might adde to or diminish from his answer and that which might be honourable to him by advice of his Counsel the Lords granting thereunto He thereupon put in an answer and replication to all the Articles to which his Counsel added some things in making his defence The Commons replyed to his answer to w ch he by way of rejoyndâ—r replied and answered to them his defence sâ—eming very solid Yet the Commons upon his replication before judgement pressed the King then being in Parliament and she Lords that he might be committed for the grievous offences charged against him Whereupon he was arrested by the Kings command and committed to the custody of the Constable of England and after let to mainprise Ar last THE LORDS in full Parliament GAVE JUDGEMENT AGAINST HIM That for breach of his Oath all the Manors and lands which he had of the Kings gift contained in the Articles should be seised into the Kings hands to have them to him and his heirs for ever together with their mean profits and issues saving to him the name and Title of a Knight and Earl together with an annuity of 20 l. yearly granted him out of the profits of the County of Suffolk The like judgement was given against him for the lands exchanged by the King for the customs of Hull and the Priory of St. Anthony Walsingham addes That he was deprived likewise of his Chancellorship and adjudged worthy of death yet the Lords would not put him to death but sent him prisoner to Windsore Castle Rex autem non multo post annullavit quicquid in Parliamento statutum fuerat contra ipsum In the Parliament of 11 R. 2. rot Parl. â— 6 7. Thomas Duke of Gloucester kneeling before the King said that he understood the King was informed he went about to depose him and to make himself King Wherefore he offered to put himself upon his tryal in that behalf as the Lords of the Parliament would award Whereupon the King said in open Parliament that he thought the said Duke was nothing faulty and therefore held him excused After which all THE LORDS as well spiritual as temporal being in the Parliament claimed their liberties and franchises namely That all weightâ— matters in the same Parliament which should be after moved touching THE PEERS OF THE LAND ought to be discussed JUDGED AND DETERMINED BY THE M by the course of Parliament and not by the Civil Law nor yet by the Common Law of the Land used in other Couâ—ts of the Realm The which claim and liberties the King most willingly allowed and granted thereto in full Parliament After which Thomas Earl of Glocester Henry Earl of Derby Richard Earl of Arundel Thomas Earl of Warwick and Thomas Earl of Marshal Lords Appellants impeached Alexandâ—r Archbishop of York Robert de Vere
the said Thomas and Roger as aforesaid but that the judgement and declaration had and given against the said John late Earl of Sarum were a good just and legal Declaration and Iudgement Per quod consideratum suit in praesenti Parliamento per praedictos Dominos tunc ibidem existentes de assensu diâ— Domini nostri Regis quod praefatus nunc Comes Sarum nihil capiat per petitionem aut prosecutionem suam praedictam Et ulterius tam Domini spirituales quam temporales supradicti judicium et Declarationem pradicta versus dictum Joannem quondam Comitem Sarum ut praemittitur habita sive reddita de assensu ipsius Domini Regis affirmarunt fore et esse bona justa et legalia et ea pro hujusmodi ex abundanti decreverunt et adjudicarunt tuuc ibidem This is all that is mentioned in that Parliament Roll concerning this businesse Sir Edw. Cook who hath an excellent faculty above all others I have yet met with in mistaking mis-reciting and perversing Records and Law-books too oft times which he had no leisure to peruse which I desire all Lawyers and others to take notice of who deem all he writes to be Oracle lest they be seduced by him in his 4 Institutes p. 23. affirms with confidence That in this Rot. Parl. 2. H. 5. n. 13. Error was assigned to reverse this judgement that the Lords gave judgement without Petition or assent of the COMMONS citing it to prove that the COMMONS have a power of judicature together with the LORDS But under his favour I can assure ye Reader 1. That there is no such error at all either mentioned or intended in this Record nor any one syllable tending to that purpose 2ly The Petition mentions no error at all in this judgement but only remembers two presidents of judgement formerly reversed the first in the case of Thomas Earl of Lancaster in 15 E. 2. which judgement was given against him at Pomfret Castle which was afterwards reversed as Sir Edward Cooke himself informs us in his 3 Institutes c. 7. p. 52 53. in Pas 39 E. 3. Coram rege rot 92. for this only reason Qua contra Chartam de libertatibus cum dictus Thomas fuit unus PARIVM MAGNATUM Regni non imprisonetur c. nec dictus Rex super eum ibit nec super eum mittet nisi per legale judicium PARIUM SUORVM c. tamen tempore pacis absque juramento seu responsione seu legale judicio PARIUM SUORUM c. adjudicatus est morti The other was the judgement given against Roger Mortymer in the Parliament of 4 E. 3. reversed for the like reason in the Parliament of 28 E. 3. n. 10 11 12. forecited being condemned and executed by the Lords without any arraignment hearing trial or answer against the Great Charter Now these two Presidents are pointblank against this pretended error alleged by Sir Edward Cook That the Lords gave judgement without the assent of the Commons and it had been very improper for them to allege the reversal of them for want of a legal tryal by their Peers to prove that the Commons who are no Peers should have assented to the Earl of Salisburies judgement and because they did it not it was Error and reversible These presidents therefore might have minded him of his gross mistake 3ly The King and Lords upon consideration declared and adjudged these two cases and judgements upon perusal of them not to be like the case of the Earl of Salisbury who being slain in rebellion and actual war against the king could not be personally arraigned and condemned as the other two might and ought to have been and therefore the judgement given against him in this case by the King and Lords in Parliament who were his Peers was a good just and legal judgement and no ways against the great Charter 4ly The Commons themselves in the Parliament o 13 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 19. acknowledged this judgement to be good without their assents by their Petition to the Kâ—ng that John Lumly whose Father was attainted of Treason by it together with the Earl of Salisbury might be restored to blood and lands by Act of Parliament and the Kings grace notwithstanding this judgement of Treason against them Which the King by assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal consented unto 5 ly In the Parliament of 3 E. 4. n. 31 32. this judgement was made void and repealed out of the Kings Grace by a special act of Parliament and the heir restored but the judgement not reversed for any Error 6ly Had there been any such Error assigned as is alleged yet the King and Lords upon solemn debate and deliberation over-ruled and adjudged it to be no Error at all as he pretends it and thereupon abated the Petition and adjudged the Judgement and Declaration given by the Lords alone with the Kings assent in 2 H. 4. without the Commons Petition or assent to be GOOD JUST AND LEGAL reconfirming it a new on Record as such Therfore it was a gross oversight in him to assign and print it as an Error and a President of the Commons House or both Houses power of judicatures together when as it is a most undeniable double Parliamentary resolution of the Kings and Lords sole right of judicature of their declaring and judging in Parliament what is Treason and what not within the Statute of 25 E. 1. without the Commons assent or privity and an unanswerable refutation of his sole opinion to the contrary in his 3 Institutes c. 2. p. 22. which he opposeth against not only these two Parliamentary resolutions but likewise against 5 H. 4. n. 11 12.15 and 17 R. 2. rot Parl. n. 20. there quoted by him By this you may judge how little credit is to be given to Sir Edwards quotations and authority in matters concerning Parliamentary Judgements and Records In the Parliament of 28 H. 6. rot Parl. n. 14. to 53. The Commons generally accusing William de la Pool Duke of Suffolk to the King and Lords he thereupon required of the king that he might be specially accused and heard to answer to that which many men reported of him to be an untrue man making therewith a protestation of his manifold good services in the wars and as a Privy Counsellor for sundry years and so asking God mercy as he had been true to the King and his Realm required his purgation The 26 of January the Commons required that for this his Confession he might be committed to ward The Lords and Judges upon consultation thought there was no good cause for that unlesse some special matter were objected against him The 28 day of January the Speaker declared that the said Duke as it was said had sold the Realm to the French who had prepared to come hither and for his own defence had furnished Wallingford Castle with all warlike necessaries upon whose request the said Duke was then
the King wherein he accused Sir William Cogan knight for extorting 300 l. by menaces from the Prior of St. Iohns Sir William appearing upon Summons prayed Counsel which was denied for that it concerned Treason whereupon he pleaded Not Guilty After which the same Parliament n. 46. to 61. The Mayor Baylifs and Commonalty of Cambridge were accused before the King and Lords that in the late insurrection they confederating with other Malefactors did break open the Treasury of the University of Cambridge burn sundry Charters of the University and compel the Chancellor and Scholars under their common Seal to release to the said Mayor and Burgesses all manner of Liberties real and personal actions and also to become bound to them in great sums of money Whereupon special writs were directed to the Mayor Baylifs and Commonalty to appear in Parliament to answer the premises The Mayor and Baylifs appear in person and plead that they 〈◊〉 not privy to any such act but if any thing was done it was by compulsion by others which the Kings learned Counsel disproved whereupon they pleaded Not Guilty The Commonalty appeared by Attorney and delivered in the Release and Bond of the University complained of under their Seal which were ordered to be cancelled After which the Chancellor and Scholars of the University exhibited Articles against the Mayor and Baylifs shewing their whole carriage and discourse in this tumult Upon reading whereof it was demanded of them in the Kings behalf What they could say why their Liberties lately confirmed should not be seised into the Kings hands as forfeited They thereupon required a Copy of the Articles Councel and respite to answer To the Copy of the Bill it was answered by the Lords that seeing they had heard it read it should suffice for by Law they ought to have no Copy For Councel it was said That to such articles if any were wherein Councel was to be had they should have it otherwise not Wherfore they were then appointed to answer to no crime or offence but only to their Liberties To which they answered by their Council That this Court ought not to have any Conusance or Jurisdiction of them for certain causes then alleged But at last they were ordered to say what they could otherwise they would give Iudgement against them as those who had nothing to say Whereupon they pleaded they did nothing but by Duress and constraint of the Rebels At last after many dilatory shifts touching their Liberties they wholly submitted themselves to the Kings mercy and grace saving their answer to other matters The KING therefore by the assent of the Prelates and Lords in Parliament â—o is the Rolâ— seised their Liberties into his hands as forfeited and by assent of the Lords and Prelates in Parliament granted to the Chancellor and Scholars the Assise and correction of bread weights measures and forestallers and fines thereof within the Town and Subâ—rbs of Cambridge which the Townsmen had before The King Lords and Prelates being Judges and giving the Judgement in this case of Commoners as the record a â—ge attests Walsingham relates that in a Parliament holden at London this year about the feast of St. John upon the Petition of the knights of Shires John Straw Captain of those in the insurrection at Bury and Myldenhale tractationi et suspentioni ADJUDICATUR to wit by the King and Lords licet multi putassent eum fuisse pecunia redimendum In the 7. year of R. 2. Rege vocante congregati sunt multi de Nobilibus Regni apud Rading to restrain the seditious motions of John de Northampton late Mayor of London qui ingenia facinora nisus est de quibus et convictus est ibidem his familiar Clerk accusing him both of divers practises and designes projected by him as well to the prejudice of the King as of the whole City of London and objecting them against him When Judgement was to be given against him in the Kings presence he pleaded that such a Judgement ought not to be given against him in the absence of the Duke his Lord whereby he raised a sinister suspition as well in the people AS NOBLES against the Duke of Lancaster The Justice who was to pronounce the Judgement told him He ought to refute his charge by Duel or by the Laws of the Realm to submit himself to drawing hanging and quartering At which when he stood mute and said nothing DECRETVM EST ut perpetuo carceri tradiretur et eâ—us bona regis usibus confisâ—arentur ut Londonias non appropinquaret per centum miliaria in vita sua whereupon he was sent prisoner to Tyntagel Castle in Cornwall and his goods seised on by the Kings Officers In the Parliament of 7 R. 2. holden at Westminster the Monday next before the feast of All Saints num 17. Bryers Cressingham and Iohn Spicâ—worth Esquires were accused before the LORDS for surrendring the Castle of Drinkham in Flanders to the kings enemies for money without consent of the kings Lieutenant Spickworth proved that the same was not in his custody and thereupon he was discharged Cressingham pleaded that he yeelded the same upon necessity without money and submitted himself to the Lords order who thought this no good cause and therefore committed him to prison The same Parliament n. 24 25. Sir William de Elinsham Sir Thomas Trivet Sir Henry de Ferriers and Sir William Farnden knights and Robert Fitz-Ralph Esquire were accused before the Lords in Parliament for selling the Castle of Burburgh with all the arms ammunition and provisions therein to the French the kings enemies for sundry summs of gold received by them of the French without authority from the king or his Lieutenant who pleaded they surrendred it for salvation of themselves and their people c. After all their excuses made they were upon consideration adjudged insufficient by the Lords and the Chancellor by their order pronounced this Judgement against them That they should repay all the monies they received from the Enemy to the King be committed to prison ransomed at the Kings will and moreover that Sir Will. de Farnden being the greatest Offender should be at the Kings mercy both for body and goods to do with them as he pleaseth In this Parliament there was a Duel fought between John Walsh an English Esquire and one of Navarr who accoused him of Treason against the King and Realm effectually but yet falsly out of envy Walsh having layen with his wife whiles he was under Captain of Cherburgh as he afterwards confessed This Dueâ— was fought within the lists in the presence of the King and Nobles of the Realm where this Navarrois being vanquished by Walsh REGALI JVDICIO tractus et suspensus est quanquam Regina et plures alii pro eo preces sedulas porrexissent In the 2. of Parliament of 7 R. 2. n. 13.10 19. John Cavendish a Fishmonger of London praying Surety of the peace
spiritual Cour◠for a temporal cause belonging to the Crown and Common Law which was adjudged by the Lords upon examination to be untrue To passe by the accusation of Sir Philip Courtney of divers hainous matters oppressions dissensions before the King and Lords in the Parliament of 16 R. 2. n. 6.13 14. of which more anon In the Parliament of 17 R. 2. n. 20 21. John Duke of Lancastre Steward and Thomas Duke of Gloucester Constable of England complained to the King that Sir Thomas Talbot Knight with other his adherents conspired the deaths of the said Dukes in divers parts of Cheshire as the same was confessed and well known and prayed That the Parliament might judge of the fault Whereupon the King and the Lords in Parliament without the Commons adjudged the said fact to be open and High Treason And thereupon they awarded two Writs to the Sherifs of Yorks and of Derby to take the body of the said Sir Thomas retornable in the Kings Bench in the month of Easter next ensuing And open Proclamation was made in Westminster Hall That upon the Sherifs retorn and at the next coming in of the said Sir Thomas he should be convicted of Treason and incurr the loss and pain of the same and that all such who should receive him after the Proclamation should receive the like losse and pain In the Parliament of 20 R. 2. n. 15 16 23. Sir Thomas Haxey Clark was by the King Lords in Parl. adjudged to die as a Traytor and to forfeit all his Lands Goods Chattels Offices and Livings for exhibiting to the House of Commons a scandalous Bill against the King and his Court for moderating the outragious expences of his Court by Bishops and Ladies c. Upon the Bishops intercession the King spared his life and delivered him into the custody of the Archbishop to remain as his Prisoner In the Parliament of 21 R. 2. n. 19 20. Pl. Parl. n. 2. to 15. The Lords Appellants appealed Sir Tho Mortimer Knight of High Treason for raising war against the King accroaching royal power and purposing to surrender his homage and allegiance and depose the King Who flying into the parts of Ireland thereupon the Lords in Parliament assigned him a certain day to come and render himself to the Law or else to be adjudged and proceeded against as a Traytor and Proclamation thereof was made accordingly in England and Ireland to render himself within 3 months And that after that time all his Abettors and Aiders should be reputed for and forfeit as Traytors He not coming at the day The Duke of Lancaster Steward of England by assent of the Lords in Parliament adjudged him a Traytor and that he should forfeit all his Lands in fee and see tayl together with all his Goods and Chattels The like Judgement in like manner was in the same Parliament given against Sir John Cobham Knight for the like Treason Placit Coronaen 16. On the 22 day of March 22 R. 2. n. 27. The King by assent of the Lords adjudged Sir Robert Plesington Knight then dead a Traytor for levying war against him with the Duke of Glocester at Harrengary for which he should lose all his Lands in fee or fee tayl and all his goods And n. 28. Henry Bowht Clerk for being of Counsel with the Duke of Hereford in his device was adjudged by the King and Lords to die and forfeit as a Traytor after which his life was pardoned and he banished In the Parliament of 1 H. 4. n. 79. As the Commons acknowledged that the Iudgements in Parliament had always of right belonged to the King and Lords and not unto the Commons So therein the King and Lords alone without the Commons gave Judgement in sundry cases as Judges in Parliament 1. In Sir Thomas Haxey his case who in his own name presented a Petition in this Parliament a nostre tresedoute seigniour le ROY a LES SEIGNIORS DU PARLIAMENT shewing that in the last Parliament of 21 R. 2. that he delivered a Bill to the Commons of the said Parliament for the honour and profit of the said King and of all the Realm for which Bill at the will of the King he was by the King and Lords adjudged a Traytor and to forfeit all that he had praying that the record of the said Judgement with the dependants thereupon might be vacated and nulled by them in this present Parliament as erronious and that he might be restored to all his degrees farms estate goods chattels ferms pensions lands tenements rents offices advow sons and possessions whatsoever and their appurt and enjoy them to him and his heirs notwithstanding the said Iudgement or any grant made of them by the King The Commons House exhibited a Petition likewise on his behalf to the like effect adding that this judgement given against him for delivering this Bill to the Commons in Parliament was eneontre droit et la course quel avoit estre use devant in Parlement en anientesment des Customs de◠le◠Communes Upon which Petitions Nostre Seignior le ROY de Induis assent des touz les Seigniors esperituelz et temporelz ad ordinez et adjudges que le dit juggement renus vers le dit Thomas in Parlement soit de tout casses revorses repellez et adnullez et tenus pur nul force n'effect et que le dit Thomas soit restitut a ses nom et fame c. nient obstant mesme le juggement 2ly In the case of Judge Rickhill 1 H· 4. n. 92. On the 18 of November the Commons prayed the King that Sir William Rickhill late Just of the Common Bench arrested for a Confession he had taken of the Duke of Gloucester at Calice might be brought to answer for it devant les Seigniors du Parlement whereupon he was brought into Parliament before the Kings presence and all the Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament where Sir Walter Clapton Chief Justice of the Kings Bench by the kings command examined the said Sir William how and by what warrant he went to Calice to the said Duke of Glocester and upon what message Who answered that king Richard sent him a special Writ into Kent there recited verbatim commanding him by the faith and allegiance whereby he was obliged to him and under pain of forfeiting all he had to goe unto Caleys And that at Dover he received a Commission from the said king by the hand of the Earl Marshal to confer with the Duke of Glocester and to hear whatsoever he would say or declare unto him and to certifie the king thereof in proper person wherever he should be fully and distinctly under his Seal Whereupon he went thither and took the said Dukes Examination in writing according to the purport of the said Commission a Copy whereof the Duke himself received c Upon the hearing of his answer and defence
every temporal Lord being in full Parliament examined touching the answer of the said Sir William and the matters and evidences which they had examined said severally that the said William had done his message well and legally and that in the person of the said William there was no fault nor evil touching the said message nor any thing that he did to the person of the said Duke Whereupon Walter Clapton Chief Justice of the Kings Bench by command of the king adjudged and declared that the said William should be fully excused and acquitted for ever in time to come touching this matter 3ly The last day of this Parliament it was agreed by the King and Lords that all the remembrances called Raggemans or Blantâ—es Charters lately sealed in the City of London and divers Counties Cities and Burroughs of England should be sent to the City of London and from every County City and Burrough from whence they came and Writs sent to every of them rehearsing That the king held all the resiants and Inhabitants in them for his good and loyal Subjects and that no confession by them made comprised in the said remembrances are nor shall be in derogation of the estate of any such person and that the same remembrances shall be burnt and destroyed in the most open place of the said Counties Cities and Burroughs and if any thing remain of record in any Court or place the king wills that it shall be cancelled and totally adnulled revoked and repealed and held for no record and of no force nor value for time to come 4ly The 19th of November in the said Parliament Placita Coronae coram Domino Rege in Parliamento suo c. Anno regni Regis Henrici quarti post Conquestum primo n. 17. The Commons prayed she King that rhe pursute arrest and judgements made against Sir William le Scropâ— knight Henry Green knight and John Bassy knight might be affirmed and held good Whereupon Sir Richard Scroop humbly prayed the King that nothing which should be done in this Parliament might turn to his or his Childrens dis-inherison Of which Sir Richard it was demanded whether the said pursute arrest and judgements were good or not who answered that he feared not to say and must confesse that when they were made thâ—y were good and profitable for the King and Realm and that his Son was one of them for which he was very sorrowfull Whereupon the king rehearsed that he claimed the Realm and Crown of England with all their members and appurietenances as heir of the bloud by the right line of king Henry the 3d. and although through the right which God had sent him by the aid of his Parents and friends he recovered the said Realm which was at the point to be undone by default of government and defesance of the Laws and customs of the Realm yet it was not his will that any should think that by way of Conquest he would disinherit any man of his heritage franchise or other right which he ought to have nor out any man of that which he had or should have by the good Laws or Customs of the Realm except these who had been against the good purpose and common profit of the Realm of which only the King held the said Sir William Henry and John for such and guilty of all the evil which had come upon the Realm and therefore he would have and hold all the Lands and Tenements they had within the Realm of England or elsewhere by conquest Whereupon fuist demande de touts les Seigniors temporellez lour advys de les pursuite arreste juggem 〈◊〉 suiâ—diâ—z Les queux Seigniors touz de â—ne accorde disorent que mesmes les pursuite arreste juggement quinâ—que fuist fait come defuist dit uist bons et les affirmente Piur bons et profitables 5ly In the case of John Hall 1 H. 4. Placita Coronae n. 11 to 17. who being in custody of the Marshal of Englana was brought by him before the Lords in Parliament and there charged before them by Walter Clapton Lord Chief Justice by the King command with having a hand in the murther of the Duke of Glocester who was smothered to death with a Featherbed at Calues by king Richard the seconds command the whole transaction whereof he confessed at large and put in writing before James Billingford Clerk of the Crown which was read before the Lords upon reading thereof the King and all the temporal Lords in Parliament resolved that the said John Hall by his own confession deserved to have as hard a death as they could adjudge him to because the Duke of Glocester was so high a Person and thereupon toutes les Seigneiors temporelz per assent du Roy adjuggerent all the temporal Lords by assent of the King ADJVDGED that the said Jo. Hall should be drawn from Tower hill unto the Gallows at Tiburn and there bowelled and his bowels laid before him and after he should be hanged beheaded and quartered and his head sent to Calice where the murther was committed and his quarters sent to other places where the king should please and thereupon command was given to the Marshal of England to make execution accordingly and it was so done the same day Lo here the Lords in Parliament gave judgement against a Commoner in case of a murther done at Calice and so not â—riable in the Kings Bench but in Parliament and passe a Judgement of High Treason on him for murthering of a great Peer only In the Parliament of 2 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 23 24. The Commons shewed to the King that William Bagot had been impeached of many horrible deeds and misprisions the which if they had been true the Commons supposed the the King aad ths Lords would have had good notice thereof for that they had made many examinations thereof whiles the said William was in distress And therefore the said Commons prayed the King that the said Sir William being in Flanders and no offence found in his person upon the slanders in his impeachment aforesaid that he would be pleased to restore him to his lands To which prayer was answered in the Kings behalf that although the said Sir William upon the said impeachment made the last Parliament was put to his answer before the King and the Lords and there pleaded a general Charter of pardon against which Charter it seemed to all the Lords then present that the said Sir William ought not to be impeached nor put to answer by the King on his part for that the said Sir William was not attainted of any impeachment suggested against him and that the King had done him justice in this behalf therefore he would in the same manner doe him justice in the residue at the Commons request A most full proof of the Kings and Lords judicial power in Parliaments even in case of a Commoner The same Parliament 2. H. 4. num 29. William
or jurisdiction to enlarge him or to fine or imprison those who took him in Execution as of late times they have done And in this Parliament upon the petition and supplication of the Prelates and Clergy n. 32. the King by the assent and advice of the Lords enacted the Statute of 8 H. 6. c. 1. That the Clergy and their Attendants called to the Convocation by the Kings writ should have and enjoy for ever hereafter the same liberty and immunity in going coming and tarrying as the Great men and Commonalty of England called or to be called to the Kings Parliaments have used and enjoyed they complaining to the king that they and their servants coming to the Convocation were oftentimes and commonly arrested molested and inquieted Which they had no power to redress but only the King and Lords upon their complaints thereof In the Parliament of 18 H. 6. n. 13. It was shewed to the King and the Lords Spiritual Temporal that Gilbert Hore Sherif of the County of Cambridge upon the kings writ directed to him to chuse 2. knights for that shire had made no return of any knights for that County for certain reasons therein expressed Whereupon the King by advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal not the Commons house alone as now nor yet joyntly with them ordered that a New writ for electing 2. knights for that County should be directed to him and that he should make proclamation that no person should come to the election with arms or arrayed in warlike manner in disturbance of the said election and breach of the kings peace A memorable president of the Kings and Lords Jurisdiction even in point of elections In the Parliament of 23 H. 6. n. 41. The Commons petitioned the king that by the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at their special request it might be enacted that every Member of the Lords and Commons house who should have any assault or affray made upon him being at the Parliament or going to or coming from thence might have the like remedy at Sir Thomas Parr knight had given him in this Parliament to wit upon petition of the Commons in his behalf to the King and Lords being the same as was enacted in Chedders case 11 H. 6. c. 11. before Whereunto the king answered The Statutes therefore made shall be observed In the Parliament of 31 H. 6. rot parl n. 25 26 27 28. we have this memorable famous case touching privilege of Parliament in their very Speakers own case resolved by the Lords Thomas Thorp chief Baron was chosen Speaker of the Parliament after his election and before the Parliament which was prorogued sat he was arrested and taken in execution at the sute of the Duke of York whereupon some of the Commons were sent up by the House to the king and Lords spiritual and temporal sitting in Parliament desiring that they might enjoy all their ancient and accustomed privileges in being free from arrests and propounded the case of Thomas Thorp their Speaker to them desiring his inlargement whereupon the said Lords spiritual aad temporal not intending to hurt or impeach the privilege of the Commons but equally after the course of Law to administer Justice and to have knowledge what the Law will weigh in that behalf declared to the Justices the premises and asked of them whether the said Thomas ought to be delivered from prison by force and vertue of the said privilege of Parliament or not To the which question the chief Justices in the name of all the Justices aforesaid communication and mature deliberation had among them answered and said That they ought not to answer that question for it hath not been used aforetime that the Justices should in any wise determine the privilege of this high Court of Parliament for it is so high and mighty in his nature that it may make that Law which is not and that that is Law it may make no Law and the determination and knowledge of their privilege belongeth to the Lords of the Parliament and not to the Justices But as for declaration of proceedings in the lower Courts in such cases as writs of Supersedoas of Privilege of Parliament be brought and delivered the said chief Justice said that there be many and divers Supersedeas of privileges of Parliament brought into the Courts but there is no general Supersedeas brought to furcease all Processes for if there should be it should seem that this high Court of Parliament that ministreth all Justice and equity should let the process of the common Laws and so it should put the party plainant without remedy for so much as actions at Common Law be not determined in this high Court of Parliament And if any person that is a Member of this high Court of Parliament be arrested in such cases as be not for Treason or Felony or surety of the Peace or for condemnation before the Parliament it is used that all such persons should be released of all such arrests and make an Attorney so that they may have the freedom and Liberty freely to attend upon the Parliament After which answer and Declaration it was throughly agréed assented and concluded by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal that the said Thomas according to the Law should remain still in prison for the causes abovesaid the privilege of the Parliament or that the same Sir Thomas was Speaker of the Parliament notwithstanding And that the premises should be opened and declared to them that were comen for the Commons of this land and they should be charged and commanded in the kings name that they with all goodly hast and speed proceed to the election of another Speaker The which premiâ—es for as much as they were matters of Law by the commandement of the Lords were opened and declared to the Commons by the mouth of Walter Moyle one of the kings Sergeants at Law in the presence of the Bishop of Ely accompanyed with other Lords in notable number and there it was commanded and charged to the said Commons by the said Bishop of Ely in the kings name that they should proceed to the election of another Speaker with all goodly hast and speed so that the matters for which the king called this his Parliament might be proceeded in and this Parliament take good and effectual conclusion and end Whereupon the Commons accordingly elected Thomas Charlton knight for their Speaker the next day and acquainted the Lords therewith and desired the kings approbation of their choice which was accorded unto by the king by assent of the Lords Lo here 1. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal are the sole Judges of the privilege of the very Speaker of the House of Commons who is here adjudged to remain in execution notwithstanding their petition for his enlargement 2ly The whole House of Commons could not then send for nor yet enlarge their own Speaker when imprisoned
Monarchy Royalty Principality Nobility yea Titles of Honour and Nobility as Kings Princes Dukes Lords c. are of Divine institution Col. 1.16 Rom. 13.1 2. Eph. 3.10 yea as antient almost as the world it self universally received approved among all Nations whatsoever under heaven and honoured with special privileges as not only all eminent Authors and experience manifest but these ensuing Scripture Texts Gen. 12.15 c. 14. â— to 10. c. 17.6.16 c. 20.2 c. 21 22 23. c. 25.16 c. 26.1.8.26.26 c. 36.15 16 17 18 29 30 31 to 43. c. 9.1 2. c. 41.40 to 47. c. 47.22 26. Exod. 1.8 Numb 20.14 c. c. 21.1 18 21 33. c. 22.7.10.14 15 40. c. 23.17 c. 2 3 10. c. 16.2 c. 27.2 c. 32.2 Deut. 17.14.15 16. Josh 1.16 17 18. c. 5.1 c. 5.1 c. 8 9 10 11 12. Judg. 9.6 18. 1 Sam. 8.5 9. 2 Sam. 11.2 1 Kin 4.34 c. 10.15 23 29. c. 20.19 c. 23.22 Iob 3.14 c. 36.7 Psal 2.2.10 Psal 62.12.14.29 Ps 72.10 11. Ps 102.15 Ps 136.17 18. Ps 138.4 Prov. 8.15 16. Prov. 30.31 Eccl. 10.16 17. Judg. 3.5 c. 16.8 1 Sam. 5.11 c. 29.2.6 7. Jer. 25.18 to 27. Dan. 4.36 c. 5.9 10 13. c. 6.27 Mat. 8.9 Mar. 6.21 c. 10.42 1 Cor. 8.5 Rom. 13.1 2 3 4. 1 Tim. 2.1 2 Tit. 3.1 2. 1 Pet. 2.13 14 15. Acts 9.27 which I wish our Sectaries Levellers and Lilburnists to consider and study with the others forecited it will be a meer folly and madnesse in any man to prove Antipodes to this institution of God Nature Nations to run quite contrary to all men and to level the head neck shoulders to the feet the tallest Cedars to the lowest Shrubs the roof of every building to the foundation stones the Sun Moon Stars Heavens to the very Earth center and even men themselves to the meanest beasts I shall therefore conclude with Saint Pauls serious admonition which these refractory persons have quite forgotten Rom. 13.1 2.3 Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth much more oppugneth abolisheth the Power resisteth oppugneth abolisheth THE ORDINANCE OF GOD. and they that resist oppugne or endeavour to abolish these powers shall receive to themselves DAMNATION for Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to the evil wherefore YE MUST NEEDS BE SUBJECT NOT ONLY FOR WRATH but likewise FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE And for this cause pay you tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually on this very thing Render therefore to all such just higher Powers theâ—ues tribute to whom tribute custom to whom custom fear to whom fear HONOUR to whom HONOUR IS DUE which Saint Peter likewise seconds almost in the self same words which you may doe well to peruse and study 1 Pet. 2.12 to 20. and then you will never dare to question or dispute any more the Power Judicatory Privileges of the Right Honourable House of Peers much lesse to Revile and Libel against their lawfull power persons Judicature as now you doe to the infinite Scandal of your Schismatical faction and Religion it self which you professe only in shew but deny in deeds and practice I shall close up this Plea with these ensuing Presidents of Power given by Act of Parliament to the Lords of the Kings Council to answer those Petitions and redresse those grievances which were not answered nor redressed sitting the Parliament after the Parliaments themselves were ended and that at the Commons special requests Parl. 15 H. 6. n. 33. Iâ—eâ— lavantdir 27 iour de Marcz un auâ—â—e petition fuist baillez a nostre Seignior le Roy en mesme le Parlement per les Comunes dicel le tenour de quell petition ey eâ—suitâ— Please au Roi nostro Soverayn Seignior considerer comet plusours petitions ount estez baillez et exhibitez a vestre tresnoble haâ—tesse par les Comunes de cest present Parliament pur ent avoir covenable remedie et unquore ment determinâ—z d'ordenier per advis des Seigniors Esperituelx et temporelx assent des Comunes avantaitz que les ditz petitions purront estre deliveres a les Seigniors de vestre tressage Counseill lez queâ—x appellez a eux les Justices et autres gentz aprisez en vâ—stre ley si besaigne y foit aiant poair par auctoritee du dit Parlement pâ—r entre cy et la fest del Nativite de Seint Johan Baptiste prouohein avenir doier et terminer les dites petitions et que Ycelle ensi terminez del advis et assent suis ditz puâ—runi estre enactez enrollez et mys de Recorde de mesme vestre Parlement La quell petition lev en mesme le Parlement et entenditz del advis et assentdes Seigniors Espirituelx temporelx en le die Parlement adonqes esteantz fuit restonduz a icell en manere ensuant Le Roi le voet Et postea videlicet vicessimo secâ—ndo die Junii tunc proxime sequenti omnes et singulae Petitiones quae Domino nostro Regi per Comunes Parliamenti praedicti pro congruo remedio inde auctoritate ejusdem Parliamenti habend libertatae et exhibitae minimeque ante dissolutionnem Parliamenti praedicti determinatae fuerunt certis Dominis de Consilio Regis subscriptis videlicet carissimo Avunculo Regis Humfrido Duci Gloucestriae ac venerabilibus patribus Johanni Archiepiscopo Ebor. Johanni Bathon et Wellen Cancellario Angliae Willielmo Lincoln Episcopo necnon et Radulpho Cromwell Militi Thesaur Angl. Waltero Hungerford Militi et Magistro Willielmo Lyndwode Custodi privati figilli Dom. Dom. Regis apud Westm. in Camera stellata preatextu auctoritatis praedictae aexhibitae fuerunt et libertatae qui quidem Domini appellatis sibi prius Justiciariis ac aliis peritis in lege tam communes quam spirituales Petitiones subscript de petitionibus antedictis coram eos legi fecerunt easque auctoritate praed in forma qua in indorsamento earundem Petitionum continetur determinaverunt quarum quidem petitionum tenores una cum responsionibus earundem inferius hic sequuntur The like was enacted and done in the Parliaments of 1 H. 6. n. 21. 4 H. 6. n. 21. 8 H. 6. n. 45. 8 H. 6. n. 69. Since then the Lords at the Commons request were thus auâ—horized to be Judges Answerers Reformers of their Petitions and Grievances in Parliament which could not be there answered redressed during the Parliaments sitting even after those Parliaments determined much more must they be the only proper Judges Answerers and Redressers of them in our Parliaments whiles they continued sitting and those who are proper Judges of their Petitions and Estates in Parliament must by the self-same reason be admitted to be the proper Iudges of their persons likewise in all cases proper for Parliamentary Conusance maugre all pretences to the contrary A Supplement to the
possessions and hereditaments with their appurtenances which come to the hands of the said King Richard by forfeiture by force of an Act made in a Parlement holden at Westminster the 21. year of his reign except the said Commons beseeching our said Liege Lord to have and take all only the issues and revenues of all the said Castles Manors Lordships Honors lands tenements rents services and of other the premises aforesaid with their appurtenances except afore except from the said fourth day of the said moneth of March and not afore Saving to every of the liegemen and subjects of our said Soveraign and liege Lord King Edward the fourth such lawfull title and right as he or any other to his use had in any of the premises the said third day of March other than he had either of the grant of the said Henry late Earl of Derby called King Henry the fourth the said Henry his son or the said Henry late called King Henry the sixth or by authority of any pretenced Parlement holden in any of their dayes And that it be ordained declared and stablished by the assent advice and authority aforesaid That all Statutes Acts and Ordinances heretofore made in and for the hurt destruction and avoyding of the said right and title of the said King Richard or of his heirs to ask claim or have the Crown Royal power estate dignity preheminence governance exercise possessions and Lordship abovesaid be voyd and be taken holden â—nd reputed voyd and for nought adnulled repealed revoked and of no force value or effect And furthermore consideration and respect had to the horrible detestable cruel and inhuman tyranny by the said Henry late Earl of Derby against his faith and ligeance done and committed to the said King Richard his rightwise true and natural Liege and Soveraign Lord the unright wise and unlawfull usurpation and intrusion of the same Henry upon the said Crown of Englond and Lordship of Irelond the great intollerable hurt prejudice and derogation that thereby followed to the said Edmund Mortymer Earl of March next heir of blood of the said King Richard time of his death and to the heirs of the said Edmund and the great and excessive damage that by the said usurpations and the continuance thereof hath grown to the said Realm of Englond and to the politique and peaceable governance thereof by inward wars moved and grounded by occasion of the said Vsurpation It be therefore Ordeined declared and stablished by the advice assent and authority aforesaid for the more stablishing of the assured and undoubted inward rest and tranquility of the said Realm of Englond And for the avoyding of the said usurpation and intrusion very cause and ground of the tribulation persecution and adversity thereof that the said Henry late Earl of Derby the heirs of his body coming be from henceforth unabled and taken and holden from henceforth unable and unworthy the premises considered to have joy occupy hold or inherit any estate dignity preheminence enheritaments or possessions within the Realm of Englond Wales or Irelond aforesaid or in Caleys or the Marches thereof And sith that the Crown Royal estate dignity and Lordship above rehearsed of right appertained to the said Noble Prince Richard Duke of York And that the said Usurper late called King Henry the sixth that understanding to the intent that in his opinion he might the more surely stand and continue in his usurpation and intrusion of and in the same Crown Royal estate dignities and Lordship evermore intended and laboured continually by subtile imaginations frauds deceipts and exorbitant means to the extreme and final destruction of the same noble Prince Richard and his issue And for the execution of this malicious and damnable purpose therein in a preâ—ence Parliament by him and his usurped authority holden at Coventree the 38 year of his usurped Reign without cause lawfull or reasonable declared and judged the same noble Prince Richard and the Noble Lords his Sons that is to wit Edward then Earl of March and now the King our Soveraign Lord abovesaid and Edmund Earl of Ruthland to be his Rebels and Enemies them and all their issue dis-inheriting of all name state title and preheminence tenements possessions and enheritaments for evermore cruelly wickedly and unjustly and agenst all humanity right and reason whereby the said noble Prince Richard and his sons above named were compelled by the dread of death to absent them for a time out of this Realm of Englond the natural land of their birth unto their intollerable hurt prejudice heavinesse and discomfort And where after these the said noble Prince Richard Duke of York using the benefice of the Law of Nature and sufficiently accompanied for his defence and recovery of his right to the said Crown of the said Realm came thereunto not then having any Lord therein above him but God And in the time of a Parliament holden by the said Henry late called King Henry the sixth the sixth day of October the 39 year of his said usurped reign intended to use his right and to enter into the exercise of the royal powers dignitees and Lordships abovesaid as it was lawfull and according to Law reason and justice him so to doe and thereupon shewed opened declared and proved his right and title to the said Crown to fore the Lords Spiritual and temporal and Commons being in the same Parlitment by antient matters of sufficient and notable Record undefaisible whereunto it could not be answered or replyed by any matter that of right ought to have deferred him then from the possession thereof yet nevertheless for the tender zeal love and affection that the same Duke bare of Godly and blessed vertues and natural disposition to the restfull governance and pollicy of the same Realm and the Common wele thereof which he loved all his life desired and preferred afore all other things earthly though all the seid Lords spiritual and temporal after long and mature deliberation by them had by good advice upon the said right and title and the authorities and Records proving the same the answers thereunto gives and the replâ—cations to the same made knew the same right and title true by them and the seid Commons so declared accepted and admitted in the same Parliament Iâ— liked him at the grete instance desire and request of the seid Lords solemnply and many times unto him made to assent and grant unto a convention concord and agreement between the seid Henry late called King Henry the sixth on that opâ—party and him on that other upon the seid right and title by the same late called King by the advice and assent of the seid Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons being in the seid Parliament auctorized in the same comprehending among other that the seid Vsurper late called King Henry the sixt understanding certainly the seid title of the said Richard Duke of York just lawfull true and sufficient by the
Writs to divers Officers Governours and Ministers of divers other Citees and to many Shires and Burroughs of the seid Realm to make fals untrue and injust proclamations against our seid Soveraign and Liege Lord K. Ed. the 4th by the name of Ed. late E. of March to provoke and excite his destruction And also by his Letters signed with his hand directed unto the seid Dukes of Excester and Somerset and other Lords refused and denied to keep and observe the seid accord convention and agreement and by the same writing falsifying his promise departed from the same Convention and accord afore either the same our Soveraign Lord or the seid noble Prince his Fader any thing did or attempted to the contrary of the same convention and concord for their partie Be it declared and juged by the seid advis assent and authorite the premises considered that the seid Usurper Henry late called Henry the sixth agenst good faith troth conscience and his honour brake the seid Convention and concord and departed therefrom of wilfull malice long afore the seid fourth day of March as by the matters afore declared it appeareth sufficiently And that the breche thereof on his partie discharged our seid Soveraign Lord of all things that should or might charge him to the keeping thereof in any Article or point after the seid breche And that he was then at his freedom and liberty to use his said right and title of the seid Crownes and to enter into the exercise thereof and of the Royal power dignite and preheminence longing thereunto as he lawfully did in manere and fourm above specified the seid convention and concord and the Acte thereupon made or any thing therein conteined notwithstanding And over this it be declared and juged by the seid advis assent and authorite that the seid agreement concord and Act in all things which been in any wise repugnant or contrary to the seid right title entree state seasen and possession of our Soveraign Lord King Edward the fourth in and to the Crown Royal estate dignite and Lordship above said be void and of no force ne effect And that it be Ordeyned and stablished by the seid assent advis and authorite that every person having any parcel of the seid Castles Manors Lands Honours tenements rents services possessions or hereditaments aboveseid the which were given in exchange or in recompence of or for any other Manors Castles lands tenements rents advowsons fee-farms reversions or any other possessions or enheritaments given to the seid Henry late Earl of Derby to the seid Henry his son late called King Henry the fifth or to the seid Henry his son late called King Henry the sixth or to any other person or persones to or for their or any of their use at their or any of their desire or to perform execute their or any of their wille mowe entre And that they and their heirs and successors entre into the same Manors Castles Lands tenements rents services possessions advowsons or hereditaments so given And them have hold keep joy occupy and inherit of like estate as the giver or givers thereof had them at the time of the gift thereof made though it be so that in any of the Letters Patents or gifts made of any of the premises no mention be made of any recompence or eschange Qua quidem petitione in Parliamento praedicto lecta audita plenius intellecta de avisamento assensu Dominorum Spiritualium Temporalium in eodem Parliam existen ad requisitionem Communitatis praedictae respondebatur eidem modo forma hic Inferius annotatis The King by the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in this present Parliament assembled at the request of the Commyns being in the same agreeth and assenteth to this Petition and it accepteth with certain moderations provisions and exceptions by his Highness thereupon made and in schedules written and in the same Parliament delivered the tenours of which hereunder follow c. Convenit cum Recordo This Judgement censure repeal in full Parliament of the deposition and proceeding against King Richard the 2. upon the Commons own Petition by this Act never yet reversed as most wicked treasonable unrighteous against Gods Laws and Mans crying for vengeance in Gods hearing in heaven and exemplarily punished upon the whole kingdom Nation and Henry the 4. his posterity on earth with the sad intestine warres miseries that attended it are sufficient arguments of its unlawfulness detestableness against all those who deem it just or allege it for a president to justifie their extravagances of a more execrable and transcendent Nature 16ly It is very observable that Roger Mortimer Earl of March who had the chief hand in deposing murthering King Edward the 2. after he was deposed was in the Parliament of 4 E. 3. condemned and executed for it as a Traytor without any legal trial all his lands confiscated and Queen Isabel her self who concurred with him like to be questioned for her life and abridged in her maintenance Moreover King Richard the 2. Granchild and next heir to King Edward the 3. who imprisoned deposed and invaded his Fathers throne though somewhat against his will was imprisoned deposed proceeded against in the self same manner as Edw. the 2. was by his very president and soon after murdered like as Edw. the 2. was by King Henry the 4. After which king Henry the 4. his Granchild Henry the 6. was also in the self same manner imprisoned deposed attainted of high Treason with his Queen and Adherents in the Parliament of 1 Edw. 4. n. 8. to 33. and at last murdered by Edw. the 4. his procurement to secure the Crown to himself and his Posterity Yet no sooner was King Edw. the 4. dead but his own Brother Richard Duke of Gloucester who by his instigation murdered King Henry the 6. with his own hands procuring himselâ— to be Protector of his son King Edw. the 5. then young getting his Brother and him into his custody by treachery perjury and hypocrisie caused them both to be barbarously murdered to set the Crown on his own head which he most ambitiously aspired after yet seemed unwilling to embrace till enforced to accept it by a Petition and Declaration drawn up by his own Instruments presented to him in the name of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of the Realm of England wherein he branded his Brother king Edw. the fourth his marriage as illegal and his issue as illegitimate aspersed his Life and Government as one by whom the Laws of God of Gods Church of the Land and of nature and also the laudable Customs and Liberties of England wherein every English man is inheritor were broken subverted contemned against all reason and justice So that the Land was ruled by self-will and pleasure fear and dread all manner of Equity and Law laid apart and despised so that no man was sure of
Christ beseeching all that fear God to behave themselves as obedient Subjects to the Queens Highness and the superiour powers which are ordained under her rather after their example to give their heads to the block than in any point to rebell against the Lords anointed Queen Mary in no point consenting to any Rebellion or sedition against her Highness but where they cannot obey but must disobey God there to submit themselves with all patience and humility to suffer as the will and pleasure of the higher powers shall adjudge Against the doctrine practice of some new Saints of this iron age who will ward off Christs wooden Cross with their iron swords and rather bring their Soveraigns heads to the block than submit their own heads unto it for their very Treasons and Rebellions against them So farr are they from believing practising the very first Alphabetical Lesson of our Saviours prescription and real Christanity Mat. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me The Duke of Northumberland for that he was appointed General of the Army in this Quarrel of the Lady Jane though Queen de facto was arrested of High Treason together with 3. of his Sons the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Huntindon with sundry Knights Gentlemen and sent prisoners to the Tower of London The 16. of August next following the said Duke and Nobles were publikely arraigned of High Treason in Westminster hall before Thomas Duke of Norfolk High Steward of England being brought to the bar the D. used great reverence to his Judges professing his faith and allegiance to the Queens Majesty whom he confessed he had grievously offeâ—ded saying that he meant not to speak any thing in defence of his face but would first understand the opinion of the Court in 2. points 1. Whether a man doing any Act or thing by authority of the Princes Councel and by Warrant of the Great Seal of England and nothing doing without the same may be charged with TREASON for doing any thing by such Warrant Which question was grounded on this very Statute of 11 H. 7. c. 1. 2. Whether any such persons as were equally culpable in that crime and those by whose Letters and Commandment he was directed in all his doings might be his Iudges or passe upon his Tryal as his PEERS To the 1. was answered mark it That the Great Seal he had for his Wâ—rrant was not the Seal of the Lawfull Qu. of the Realm nor pâ—ssed by her Authority but the Seal of an Vsurper and therefore could be no Warrant to him To the 2. That if any were as deeply to be touched in that Case as himself yet so long as no attainder was of Record against them they were nevertheless persons able in Law to pass upon any tryal and not to be challenged therefore but at the Princes pleasure After which the Duke and the rest of the Lords using but few words declaring their earnest repentance and imploring the Queens mercy confessed this Indictment of Treason and thereupon had Iudgement passed upon them as Traytors And the Duke with Sir Iohn Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer were accordingly executed on Tower Hill August 22. confessing the Iustice both of their Iudgement and Execution as TRAYTORS and not justifying themselves by the Act of 11 H. 7. After this Archbishop Cranmer though at first he refused to subscribe K. Eds. will to dis-inherit Queen Mary alleging many reasons against it yet was committed Prisoner to the Tower indicted arraigned condemned of High Treason in November following for aiding the Earl of Northumb. with Horse and Men against Queen Mary And Queen Jane herself though Queen de facto meerly passive not active in this case never aspiring after the Crown being proclaimed Queen against her will with the Lord Guyldsord her husband were both indicted arraigned condemned of High Treason and accordingly executed as Traytors Feb. 12. 1 Mariae the one for usurpation of the royal Estate AS QVEEN OF ENGLAND the other as principal adherent to her in that case both of them confessing that BY THE LAW THEY WERE JUSTLY CONDEMNED After which the Duke of Suffolk her father and sundry others were condemned of High Treason executed upon the same account and that by the judgement of all the several Peers Nobles Judges Lawyers and Great Officers of Engl. though guilty of the same crime seconded with the Judgement of the whole Parl. of 1 Mar. c. 16. which confirmed their Attainders as JUST and LEGAL notwithstanding the Statute of 11 H. 7. c. 1. which extends only to indemnifie those Subjects who doe their true duty and service of allegiance to their King and Soveraign Lord which none certainly do who adhere and joyn with an apparent Usurper in possession against their lawfull undoubted King and Soveraign Lord as they here adjudged and the Parliaments of 1 4 and 14 of King Edward the 4th long before no Acts of Parliament whatsoever being able to secure Usurpers Titles though Kings de facto to themselves or their posterity or to save their own or their adherents Heads from the block or their estates from confiscation as the recited tragical Presidents and Judgements prove against the absurd opinions of many Grandees of the Law in great reputation who take all Sir Edward Cooks and others Dotages for Oracles and well deserve a part in Ignoramus for being ignorant of these late notorious Judgements and authorities against their erronious opinions wherewith they seduce their silly Clyents and young Students of the Law to their great peril for whose better information I have the larger insisted on this point to rectifie this dangerous capital mistake which may hazard both their lives estates and souls to boot And so much in answer to the objected Presidents of Edward and Richard the 2d to prove the Commons Right of Judicature in Parliaments c. As good an evidence as that grave Sir E. Cook produceth to prove this House of Commons who had no Journal Book till â— Ed. 6. to be a distinct Court of Iudicature because upon signification of the Kings pleasure to the Speaker they do and may prorogue or adjourn themselves and are not prorogued adjourned by the House of Lords By which reason he might prove every Committee of the Lords or Commons House to be a distinct Court because they may adjourn and prorogue themselves without the House and all Commissioners for examination of Witnesses Charitable uses the petty Sessions of Justices of Peace all Country Committees Archdeacons and other visitors all Auditors of Accounts Arbitrators Referrees c. to be Courts because they may all adjourn themselves from one day and place to another when as their presenting of their own Speakers in and the Kings calling them into the Lords House at the beginning and end of every Parliament or Session and at the passing of Bills and their dissolution in the Lords