true and so they did unto the Councils in the ancient Saxon times and so the Knights of the Counties ought to do in these days if they obey the Writ Duos Milites gladiis cinctos c. Secondly he saith that the Knights were not to come to Council That is his opinion yet the Writ speaks that the Discreti Milites were to come Ad loquendum cum Rege de negotiis regni It is true saith he but not Ad tractandum faciendum consentiendum It is true it is not so said nor is it excluded and were it so yet the Opponents conclusion will not thence arise That none but the King and those who are of the House of Lords were there present The Sixth and last instance mentioned by the Opponent is in his Thirtieth page and concerneth Escuage granted to King John who by his Charter granted That in such cases he would summon Archbishops Bishops Abbots Earls and the greater Barons unto such Conventions by special Writs and that the Sheriff shall summon promiscuously all others which hold in Capite and thence he concludes That none but the Great Lords and the Tenants in Capite whom he calls the lesser Barons were present but no Knights Citizens or Burgesses all which being granted yet in full Parliament the Citizens and Burgesses might be there For Councils were called of such persons as suited to the matter to be debated upon If for matters purely Ecclesiastical the King and his Council of Lords and the Church-men made up the Council If for advice in emergencies the King and such Lords as were next at hand determined the conclusions If for Escuage the King and such as were to pay Escuage made up a Council to ascertain the sum which was otherwise uncertain If for matters that concerned the common Liberty all sorts were present as may appear out of the very Charter of King John noted in my former discourse page 258. and also from an Observation of Cambden concerning Henry the Third Ad summum honorem pertinet said he Ex quo Rex Henricus Tertius ex tanta multitudine quae seditiosa ac turbulentia fuit optimos quosque ad Comitia Parliamentaria evocaverit Secondly The Opponent takes that for granted that never will be viz. That all the Kings Tenants In Capite were of the House of Lords whenas himself acknowledgeth a difference page 28. viz. That the Barons are summoned by Writs sigillatim as all the Members of the House of Lords are but these are by general Summons their number great and hard it will be to understand how or when they came to be excluded from that Society I shall insist no further upon the particulars of this Tractate but demur upon the whole matter and leave it to Judgement upon the Premises which might have been much better reduced to the main Conclusion if the Opponent in the first place had defined the word PARLIAMENT For it was a Convention without the People and sometimes without the KING as in the Cases formerly mentioned of the Elections of William Rufus and of King Stephen And if sometimes a Parliament of Lords onely may be against the King and so without King or People as in the Case between Stephen and Maud the Empress and the Case likewise concerning King John both which also were formerly mentioned All this is no more to the Government than it would be should at any time the Commons hold a Parliament without a King or House of Lords and then all the Opponents labour is to little purpose A TABLE TO THE Second Part. A A Betting of Felony made Felony page 174 Administration granted to the next of the Kindred 30 Admirals power from the Parliament 24. formerly under many brought into one 25. once gained jurisdiction to the high-water-mark 26. and his Power regulated by Law ibid. over Sea-men Ports and Ships ibid. Allegiance according to Law 11. vide Supremacy the nature thereof in general 42. it is not natural ibid. 52. not absolute or indefinite 49. not to the King in his natural capacity 51. it obligeth not the people to serve in forein War 60. it is due to the person of the King for the time being 144 163. what it is in time of War and relation thereunto 144. Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth endeavoured to advance it in relation to the Crown but effected it not 61. Appeals in cases Ecclesiastical restrained from Rome and given in the Kings case to the Convocation and in the cases of the people the Archbishop afterwards to the Delegates and were never setled in the Crown 133 136. vide Archbishop Archbishop hath the lawful power of the Pope in Appeals and Dispensations Licenses and Faculties 136. the Archbishop of York loseth his jurisdiction over the Scotish Bishops 113 Arrays Commission of Array 104 vide War. Assent of the King to Acts of Parliament serveth onely to the execution of the Law and not to the making thereof 13 Association of the people for the common safety before the Statute enabling the same 173. B. BAstardy not to be determined by the Ordinary before Summons to the pretenders of Title to be heard 92 Bench the Kings Bench at Westminster abated in power by the Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and Goal-delivery 54 97 Benevolence first used by Edward the Fourth 108. taken away by Richard the Third ibid. taken up again by Henry the Seventh 114 Bishops not impeachable before the Civil Magistrate 29. their Temporalties to be neither seized nor wasted in the vacancy Vide Ordinary Buggery made Felony 173. C. CAnons their power anciently in debate 37. such as are not according to the Law are taken away 138 Castles and Goals restored to the Country 67. vide Forts and Fortifications Chancery once an Office afterwards a Court 21. the power grows by Act of Parliament 22 95. the manner of the proceedings 23. Keeper of the Great Seal increaseth in power 95 Chancellour elected by the Parliament 23 Cheshire made a Principality 7 Children carried into Cloisters remedied 96 Clergie priviledgea from Arrests 31. discharged of purveyance and free quarter ibid. their Temporalties in question 38. the Commons love not their persons 86. their first declining from Rome in the matter of Provisors 88. they gain free process in matters Ecclesiastical 112. their defection from Rome and submission to the Crown 120 Clergie upon Trial but once allowed 151. in some cases disallowed 147 173. Commissioners Ecclesiastical 167. High Commission ibid. Conjuration vide Witchcraft Conservators of the Truce 95 Constables Court vide Marshals Court Convocation established by Parliament 89. it then undertook great matters but much more after the Clergies forsaking the Pope 134 Councils the Privy Council ordered by Parliament 13 20 83. of use for sudden motions 16. their Oaths 17. and Jurisdictions 19. and power 83 Magnum Concilium or the grand Council of Lords 16 Crown entitled not by Descent 75 162. but intailed 75. vide 109.
And thus the Free-men yielded up their liberty of Election to the Free-holders possibly not knowing what they did nevertheless the Parliament well knew what they did this change was no less good than great For first These times were no times for any great measure of Civility The Preface of the Statute shews That the meanest held himself as good a man as the greatest in the Country and this tended to Parties Tumults and Bloudshed Secondly Where the Multitude prevail the meaner sort are upon the upper hand and these generally ignorant cannot judge of persons nor times but being for the most part led by Faction or Affection rather than by right Understanding make their Elections and thereby the general Council of this Nation less generous and noble Thirdly There is no less equity in the change than policy For what can be more reasonable than that those men onely should have their Votes in Election of the Common-Council of the Kindom whose Estates are chargeable with the publick Taxes and Assessments and with the Wages of those persons that are chosen for the publick Service But above all the rest this advancing of the Free-holders in this manner of Election was beneficial to the Free-men of England although perchance they considered not thereof and this will more clearly appear in the consideration of these three particulars First It abated the power of the Lords and great Men who held the inferiour sort at their Devotion and much of what they had by their Vote Secondly It rendred the Body of the People more brave for the advancing of the Free-holder above the Free-man raiseth the spirit of the meaner sort to publick regards and under a kind of Ambition to aspire unto the degree of a Free-holder that they may be somewhat in the Commonwealth And thus leaving the meanest rank sifted to the very bran they become less considerable and more subject to the Coercive power whilst in the mean time the Free-holder now advanced unto the degree of a Yeoman becomes no less careful to maintain correspondency with the Laws than he was industrious in the attaining of his degree Thirdly But this means now the Law makes a separation of the inferiour Clergie and Cloistered people from this service wherein they might serve particular ends much but Rome much more For nothing appeareth but that these dead persons in Law were nevertheless Free-men in Fact and lost not the liberty of their Birth-right by entring into Religion to become thereby either Bond or no Free Members of the people of England Lastly As a binding Plaister above the rest First a Negative Law is made that the persons elected in the County must not be of the degree of a Yeoman but of the most noted Knights Esquires or Gentlemen of the County which tacitly implies that it was too common to advance those of the meaner sort Whether by reason of the former wasting times Knights and Esquires were grown scant in number or by reason of their rudeness in account or it may be the Yeomanry grew now to feel their strength and meant not to be further Underlings to the great Men than they are to their Feathers to wear them no longer than they will make them brave Secondly the person thus agreed upon his Entertainment must be accordingly and therefore the manner of taxing in full County and levying the rate of Wages for their maintenance is reformed and settled And Lastly their persons are put under the protection of the Law in an especial manner for as their work is full of reflection so formerly they had met with many sad influences for their labour And therefore a penal Law is made against force to be made upon the persons of those Workmen of State either in their going to that Service or attending thereupon making such Delinquents liable to Fine and Imprisonment and double damages And thus however the times were full of Confusions yet a foundation was laid of a more uniform Government in future times than England hitherto had seen CHAP. XV. Of the Custos or Protector Regni KIngs though they have vast Dimensions yet are not infinite nor greater than the bounds of one Kingdom wherein if present they are in all places present if otherwise they are like the Sun gone down and must rule by reflexion as the Moon in the night In a mixt Commonwealth they are integral Members and therefore regularly must act Per deputatum when their persons are absent in another Legialty and cannot act Per se Partly because their Lustre is somewhat eclipsed by another Horizon and partly by common intendment they cannot take notice of things done in their absence It hath therefore been the ancient course of Kings of this Nation to constitute Vice-gerents in their absence giving them several Titles and several Powers according as the necessity of Affairs required Sometimes they are called Lord Warden or Lord Keeper of the Kingdom and have therewith the gegeral power of a King as it was with John Warren Earl of Surrey appointed thereunto by Edward the First who had not onely power to command but to grant and this power extended both to England and Scotland And Peter Gaveston though a Foreigner had the like power given him by Edward the Second over England to the reproach of the English Nobility which also they revenged afterward Sometimes these Vice-gerents are called Lieutenants which seemeth to confer onely the King's power in the Militia as a Lieutenant general in an Army And thus Richard the Second made Edmund Duke of York his Lieutenant of the Kingdom of England to oppose the entry of the Duke of Hertford afterwards called Henry the Fourth into England during the King's absence in Ireland And in the mean while the other part of the Royalty which concerned the Revenues of the Crown was betrusted to the Earl of Wiltshire Sir John Bush Sir James Baggot and Sir Henry Green unto whom men say The King put his Kingdom to farm But more ordinarily the Kings power was delegated unto one under both the Titles of Lord Guardian of the Kingdom and Lieutenant within the same such was the Title of Henry Lacy Earl of Lincoln and of Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and of Audomar de Valentia Earl of Pembrooke all of them at several times so constituted by Edward the Second as by the Patent-Rolls appeareth So likewise did Edward the Third make his Brother John of Eltham twice and the Black Prince thrice and Lionel Duke of Clarence and his Brother Thomas each of them once in the several passages of Edward the Third beyond the Sea in the third fifth twelfth fourteenth sixteenth nineteenth and thirty third years of his Reign concerning which see the Patent-Rolls of those years And Henry the Fifth gave likewise the same Title and Authority to the Duke of Bedford upon the King's Voyage into France and afterward that Duke being sent over to second the King
demise he died a death meet to be for ever blotted out of the thoughts of all Subjects but to be had in everlasting remembrance of all Kings For if a Kingdom or Parliament misleads the King at the worst he is but misled by his Council but if he be drawn aside by favorites he must thank his own lust in the one he hath but the least share in the burthen in the other he must bear the whole CHAP. LXV Of the condition of the Nobility of England till the time of Edward the Third NOw was Prerogative mounted up to the highest pitch or endeavoured so to be either through the weakness or power of these Kings of whom the first and last had little to ground upon but their own will and the other I mean Edward the first had more wisdom and power but was otherwise distracted by foraign and more urgent employments so as the work fainted before it came to its full period The contest was between the King and Barons who till those days were rather the great and richer sort of men than Peers although they also were of the number I am not so sharp-sighted as to reach the utmost intentions of the Lords but their pretences are to such publick nature as it is plain that if their private interest was wrapped up therein they were inseparable And I shall never quarrel the Lords aim at private respects whenas it is plain the publick was so importantly concerned and yet I will not justiâ—ie all that I find written concerning their Words and Actions The Speech of the E. of Cornwal to his his elder Brother and King Henry the Third I will neither render up my Castle nor depart the Kingdom but by the judgment of the Peers and of Simon the E. of Leicester to the same King that he lyed and were he not a King the Earl would make him repent his word and of the Lords that they would drive the King out of his Kingdom and elect another and of the E. Marshal to Edward the first that he would neither go into Gascoine nor hang and such other do savour of passion especially that of the E. of Leicester and the Lords and may seem harsh and unmannerly and yet may admit of some allay if the general rudeness of the time the King 's injurious provocations and the passions of cholerick men be weighed together Yet will not all these trench upon the cause nor render the state of the Lords too high or disproportionable to their place in the policy of the Kingdom of England as things then stood I say it was not disproportionable for where the degree of a King was mounting up to such a pitch as to be above Law the Lords exceeded not their places in pressing him with their Counsels to conform to the Laws and in maintaining that trust that was reposed in them in keeping off such sinister Counsels and invasions as might violate the Laws and Liberties or hinder the current of Justice concerning which I shall shortly state the case and leave it to the censure of others The Government of the people of this Nation in their original was Democratical mixt with an Aristocracie if any credit be to be given to that little light of History that is left unto us from those ancient times Afterwards when they swarmed from their hive in Forreign parts and came over hither they came in a warlike manner under one conducter whom they called a King whose power whatever in the War yet in time of peace was not of that height as to rule alone I mean that whereas the Lords formerly had the principal executory power of Laws setled in them they never were absolutely devested of that power by the access of a King nor was the King ever possessed of all that power nor was it ever given to him but the Lords did ever hold that power the King concurring with them and in case the King would not concur the people generally sided with the Lords and so in conclusion the King suffered in the quarrel From this ground did arise from time to time the wandrings of the people in electing and deposing their Kings during the Saxon times Nor did nor could the Norman Williams shake off this co-partnership but were many times as well as other ensuing Princes perswaded against their own minds and plotted desires Nor can it otherways be supposed where Councils are setled for whereto serve they if notwithstanding them the King may go the way of his inordinate desire If the Lords then did appear against these Kings whereof we treat in cases where they appeared against the Laws and Liberties of the people it was neither new nor so heinous as it is noised for them who are equally if not more entrusted with the Common-wealth than the King by how much the Counsellors are trusted more than the Counselled to be true for the maintenance of their trust in case the King shall desert his But the greater question is concerning the manner by Threats and War. It is as probable I grant that the Lords used the one as the other for it was the common vice of the times to be rugged yet if we shall add to what hath been already said first that Knight-service was for the defence of the Kingdom principally Secondly that the greatest power of Knight-service rested with the Lords not only in propriety and ownership but in point of direction for the benefit of the Commonwealth and lastly that the state of the times now was such as the Kingdom was oppressed by strangers Counsels and the Counsels of the Kingdom rejected that instead of Law Garrisons of strangers ruled that no man could own his own that the Subjects were looked upon as enemies and of all this the King made the principal instrument who had ruled and over-ruled in this manner and so was resolved to continue I shall leave it to the better judgement of others what other healing plaister was to be had for such a sore Albeit it cannot be denied that more due respects might have been tendred to Kingly dignity than was in those times practised And yet there was a difference also in the occasions of War for certainly that last War with Edward the second was more fatal and yet less warrantable and in the issue declared that there was more of the Queen therein than of the Lords who knew a way of removing Favourites from the King without removing the King from the Kingdom or driving him out of the World. In all which nevertheless it cannot be concluded that the Lords party was encreased more than in the former Kings times for the loss of the field in Henry the Thirds time against the Prince kept them in awe all the succeeding Reign although they were not then tongue-tyed and their second loss against Edward the Second which was yet more sharp questionless quelled their spirits although they lost no right thereby and encreased the Kings party much
the conclusion The Dukes of Lancaster and York forsake the Court Favourites step into their rooms The old way of the eleventh year is re-assumed Belknap and others are pardoned and made of the Cabinet The pardon of the Earl of Arundel is adnulled contrary to the advice of the major part and the Archbishop the Earl's Brother is banished The Lords forsake the wilful King still the King's Jealousie swells The Duke of Hertford is banished or rather by a hidden Providence sent out of the way for a further work The Duke of Lancaster dies and with him all hope of moderation is gone for he was a wise Prince and the onely Cement that held the Joynts of the Kingdom in correspondency And he was ill requited for all his Estate is seized upon The Duke of Hertford and his party are looked upon by the people as Martyrs in the Common Cause and others as Royalists Extremities hasten on and Prerogative now upon the wing is towering above reach In full Parliament down goes all the work of the tenth and eleventh years Parliament which had never been if that Parliament had continued by adjournment The King raiseth a power which he calleth his Guard of Cheshire-men under the terrour of this displaying Rod the Parliament and Kingdom are brought to Confession Cheshire for this service is made a Principality and thus goes Counties up and Kingdoms down The King's Conscience whispers a sad message of dethroning and well it might be for he knew he had deserved it Against this danger he entrenches himself in an Act of Parliament that made it Treason To purpose and endeavour to depose the King or levy War against him or to withdraw his Homage hereof being attainted in Parliament And now he thought he was well guarded by engagement from the Parliament but he missed the right conclusion for want of Logick For if the Parliament it self shall depose him it cannot be made a Traytor or attaint it self and then hath the King gained no more than a false birth But the King was not thus quiet the sting of guilt still sticks within and for remedy he will unlaw the Law and gets it enacted That all procurers of the Statute of 10 Richard the Second and the Commission and procurers of the King's assent thereto and hinderers of the King's proceedings are adjudged Traytors All these reach onely the Branches the Root remains yet and may spring again and therefore in the last place have at the Parliament it self For by the same it is further declared That the King is the sole Master of the Propositions for matters to be treated in Parliament and all gainsayers are Traitors Secondly That the King may dissolve the Parliament at his pleasure and all gainsayers are Traitors Thirdly That the Parliament may not proceed against the King's Justices for offences by them committed in Parliament without the King's consent and all gainsayers are Traitors These and the like Aphorisms once voted by the Cheshire-men assented unto by the Parliament with the Kings Fiat must pass for currant to the Judges and if by them confirmed or allowed will in the King's opinion make it a Law for ever That the King in all Parliaments is Dominus fac primum and Dominus fac totum But the Judges remembred the Tenth year and Belknap's entertainment and so dealt warily their opinion is thus set down It belongeth to the Parliament to declare Treason yet if I were a Peer and were commanded I should agree So did Thorning under-write and thereunto also consented Rickill and Sir Walter Clopton the last being Chief-Justice of the King's Bench the first Chief-Justice of the Common-pleas and the second another Judge of the same Bench. The sum in plainer sence is that if they were Peers they would agree but as Judges they would be silent And thus the Parliament of England by the first of these four last-mentioned conclusions attainted themselves by the second yielded up their Liberties by the third their Lives and by the last would have done more or been less And to fill up the measure of all they assigned over a right of Legislative power unto six Lords and three Commons and yet the King not content superadded that it should be Treason for any man to endeavour to repeal any of their determinations The Commonwealth thus underneath the King tramples upon all at once for having espied the shadow of a Crown fleeting from him in Ireland he pursues it leaves the noble Crown of England in the base condition of a Farm subject to strip and waste by mean men and crosses the Irish Seas with an Army This was one of England's Climacterical years under a Disease so desperate that no hope was left but by a desperate Cure by sudden bleeding in the Head and cutting off that Member that is a principle of motion in the Body For it was not many Moneths e're the wind of affairs changed the King now in Ireland another steps into the Throne The noise hereof makes him return afar off enraged but the nigher he comes the cooler he grows his Conscience revives his Courage decays and leaving his Army his Lordship Kingdom and Liberty behind as a naked man submits himself to release all Homage and Fealty to resign his Crown and Dignity his Titles and Authority to acknowledge himself unworthy and insufficient to reign to swear never to repent of his resignation And thus if he will have any quiet this wilful man must be content for the future neither to will nor desire And poor England must for a time be contented with a doleful condition in which the King cannot rule and the Parliament will not and the whole body like a Chaos capable of any form that the next daring spirit shall brood upon it CHAP. II. Of the State of the King and Parliament in relation of it to him and him to it A King in Parliament is like the first-born of Jacob The excellency of Dignity and the excellency of Power but alone unstable as water Examples of both these we have in these two Kings Whereof the first was Crowned by the Parliament and Crowned it the latter also Crowned it but with Thorns and yet the Parliament in all held on that wise way that it neither exceeded its own bounds nor lost its own right I shall enter into the consideration of particulars under these heads First In relation more immediately to the interest of the King Secondly To the interest of the Kingdom in general The King though higher than all the people by the head and so hath the Prerogative of Honour as the most worthy yet his strength and abilities originally do rise from beneath otherwise he is but like a General without an Army the Title big but airy and many times his person subject to so much danger that instead of drawing the Eyes of all the people to look upon him with admiration they are drawn to look to him with observation and in this
Judicature rested with the Lords in relation not onely to the House of Commons but also in relation to the King whose work in such cases is not to judge above or with the Peers but to execute their sentence And that carries with it a List whereby the power of a King may appear not to be so Supreme in making of the Law as some would have it for if his Judgement and Conscience be bound by the Votes of the Peers in giving a Law in case of a particular person where the Law was not formerly known let others judge of the value of this Negative Vote in giving Law to the whole Kingdom It is true that this Parliament was quarrelled by the King and he kept it at a bay by a Proclamation that pretended Revocation as far as a Proclamation could revoke an Act of Parliament but it effected nothing nor did the contest last long Now though this Jurisdiction thus rested in the House of Lords in such cases as well as in others yet is it not so originally in them as to be wholly theirs and onely as they shall order it For the Commons of England have a right in the course and order of Jurisdiction which as the known Law is part of their Liberty and in the speedy execution of Justice as well as they have right to have Justice done And therefore whereas in Cases of Errour and delays the Appeal was from the inferiour Court to the Parliament which immediately determined the matter and now the trouble grew too great by the increase of pleas For remedy hereof a kind of Committee is made of one Bishop two Earls two Barons who by the advice of the Chancellor Treasurer and the Judges shall make good judgement in all Cases of Complaint of delay in Judgement which Committee is not made by Order of the Lords alone which they might have done in case Jurisdiction had been wholly and onely shut up in their custody but by Act of Parliament and joynt concurrence of the Commons with the Lords For as the Commons challenge speedy Execution of Justice as one of their Liberties so also to be under the Jurisdiction of such Judges and Courts as the Laws in the making whereof themselves challenge a vote do establish and appoint I will conclude this Chapter with the Constitution of the Parliament in these times For the difficulties that befel between the Kings and their people or Houses of Parliament wrought two sad effects viz. A propensity to decline calling of Parliaments so often as was used and expected and when it assembled as great a propensity in the Members to decline their attendance by means whereof as the Historian tells us the Parliament was sometimes enforced to adjourn it self for want of number sufficient The first of these arose from want of good will in the Kings the other from want of Courage and Zeal in the people The first of these was fatal and destructive to good Government for though in distempered Parliaments it is good to withdraw yet in distempered times it is necessary to meet and gain a right understanding of all parties and therefore these times were so happy as to bind themselves by publick Acts of State to re-continue the assembling of Parliaments For the face of the Times represented unto all that agitations were like to be quick violent and to continue for some succession of time It is therefore safe if not necessary that every eye should be open and Councils ready for every occasion A Law at length is agreed upon that A Parliament shall be holden once every year or more if need be But in Thirty years the power of this Law is wasted out of mind and the evil reviving revives also the Statute and yet they had Thirteen or Fourteen Parliaments in Thirty years space and not above Three or but once Four years distance of time between any Two of them in Succession This was the sence of the Members of the Houses in their meeting but at home they had homely conceits and it is found no less difficult to bring them to the meeting than to continue the meeting according to the Law being either loath to adventure their thoughts into the troublesome affairs of the Publick or their persons to expence and hazard But the publick must be served and therefore an Act of Parliament is made That all such Members as decline their appearance at the Parliament after Summons made shall be amerced and the Sheriffs likewise that shall neglect return of Summons And the Statute implyeth that it was no introduction of a new Law but a reviving of former Law now or lately disused or a Custom now out of custom And to take away all objection in point of charges and expences another Law was made to establish the Assessments and levying of their wages upon the Lands that anciently were chargeable therewith in whose hands soever the same shall come I shall conclude with this That the Parliament though like a Garment it sometimes covers the goodly feature and proportion of a well-composed body yet it keeps the same warm and as a Shield is first in all dangers and meets with many a knock which the body feels not this is their work and reward It is true that in the wearing it is felt heavy but it is the easier born if it be duly considered that it is better to be so cloathed than to be naked CHAP. III. Of the Privy-Council and Condition of the Lords THe latter must make way for the former for according to their personal esteem in their own Countries such is their Authority at the Board in joynt Councils And it was one point of happiness in a sad time of War that all men looked one way The Lords were much addicted to the Field and could do much with Edward the Third who was a brave Leader and more with the people who had been so long time used to the rough Trade of Souldiery that they loved not to be at home about matters of Husbandry wherein they had so little experience And having so fair a Garland in their eye as France it is no wonder if domestick designs seemed meaner or more dangerous Thus did God do England a good turn although it was made for the present thereby neither so rich or populous as it might have been in a time of Peace This French heat wasted many a tumultuous Spirit and ennobled the Fame of the King and Lords not onely abroad but won them much Honour and Repute of those that remained at home and so by congregating Homogeneals and severing Heterogeneals rendred the body of the people more Univocal which tended much to the setling of the Joynts of this distracted Nation A timely birth hereof doubtless was the peaceable entry of Richard the Second upon the Throne and quiet sitting there whilst as yet he was but a Child the Princes of the bloud many and they of generous active and
Peace for whilst Henry the Sixth was in France which was in his Tenth year from St. George's day till February following the Scots propound terms of Peace to the Duke of Gloucester he being then Custos Regni which he referred to the Order of the Parliament by whom it was determined and the Peace concluded in the absence of the King and was holden as good and effectual by both Kingdoms as if the King had been personally present in his full capacity CHAP. XXIII A Survey of the Reigns of Edward the Fourth Edward the Fifth and Richard the Third THe Reign of Henry the Sixth was for the most part in the former parts of it like Fire buried up in the Ashes and in the latter parts breaking out into a Flame In the heat whereof the Duke of York after Fealty given by him to Henry the Sixth and Dispensation gotten from the Pope to break his Faith lost his life and left his Son the Markgrave to pursue his Title to the Crown which he claimed by Inheritance but more especially by Act of Parliament made upon the agreement between Henry the Sixth and his Father This was Edward the Fourth who nevertheless reserved himself to the Election of the Lords and was by them received and commended to the Commons in the Field By which means he gaining the possession had also encouragement to maintain the same yet never held himself a King of full Age so long as Henry the Sixth lived which was the one half of his Reign Nor did he though he held many Parliaments scarce reach higher than at reforming of Trade which was a Theam well pleasing to the people next unto their Peace which also the King carefully regarded For although he had been a Souldier of good experience and therewith successful yet as one loath to trust too far either the constancy of the people of his own Opinion or the fortune of War with his neighbouring Princes he did much by brave countenance and discourse and yet gained repute to the English for valour after the dishonourable times of Henry the Sixth He had much to do with a wise King of France that knew how to lay out three or four calm words at any time to save the adventure of his peoples bloud and make a shew of money to purchase the peaceable holding of that which was his onely by force until the wind proved more fair to bring all that continent under one head In his Government at home he met with many cross Gales occasioned principally by his own rashness and neglect of the Earl of Warwick's approved friendship which he had turned into professed enmity and so weakned his own cause thereby that he was once under water his Kingdom disposed of by new intail upon the Heirs of Duke Clarence and so the Earl of Warwick remained constant to the House of York though this particular King was set aside Nor did he in all this gain any thing but a Wife who though his Subject and none of the greatest Family neither brought any interest unto her Lord and Husband amongst Foreign Princes brought nevertheless a Pearl which was beyond all which was the purchase of the Union between the two Houses of York and Lancaster and a peaceable succession in the Throne for a long while to come It must be granted that there fell therewith an unhappy inconvenience in the raising of a new Nobility of the Queens Kindred of whom the ancient Stock of Nobility thought scorn and yet they were so considerable as to be envied A Wound hard to be cured and yet easily avoided by such as know how to deny themselves And therefore can be no prejudice unto that conclusion That for an English King to marry his own Subject is more safe for the King and beneficial for the Kingdom than to marry a Stranger But Edward the Fourth did not long lie underneath upon the next fair Gale he comes from beyond the Sea and like his first Predecessor of the House of Lancaster claims onely his Dutchy which no man could in reason deny to be his right and therefore were the sooner engaged with him in that accoust This was an act that in the first undertaking seemed modest but when it was done appeared too bold to adventure it upon the Censure of Henry the Sixth and therefore they were not more ready to engage than slack to dis-engage till they were secure in the Kings Interest which not long after ensued by the death of Henry the Sixth Thus Edward the Fourth recovered the Crown to save his Dutchy His Government was not suitable for he came in by the People but endeavoured to uphold himself by Foreign Dependencies as if he desired to spread his Roots rather wide than deep How ill this Choice was the event shewed for Plants that root wide may be strong enough against an outward Storm but they soon grow old barren and rot irrecoverably from beneath Such was the end of this mans Government himself lived and died a King and left Issue both Male and Female the one tasted the Government the other kissed it but neither of them ever enjoyed further than a bare Title Nor was the Government of Edward the Fourth so secured by the Engagements of Foreigners for as he sought to delude so he was deluded both by Burgundy and Scotland to the prejudice of all three Towards his own people his carriage was not so much by Law as by Leave for he could fetch a course out of the old way of rule satisfie himself dissatisfie others and yet never was called to account What was done by Entreaty no man could blame and where Entreaties are countenanced by Power no man durst contradict Thanks to his Fate that had brought him upon a People tired by Wars scared by his success and loth to adventure much for the House of Lancaster in which no courage was left to adventure for it self The greatest errour of his way was in the matter of Revenue the former times had been unhappy in respect of good Husbandry and Edward the Fourth was no man to gather heaps His occasions conduced rather to diffuse and his mind generally led the way thereto so as it is the less wonder if he called more for accommodations than the ordinary Treasury of the Crown could supply Hereto therefore he used expedients which in his former times were more moderate for whilst Henry the Sixth lived he did but borrow by Privy Seal and take Tunnage and Poundage by way of hire Afterwards when no Star appeared but what was enlightned from his own Sun he was more plain and tried a new trick called Benevolence Unwelcome it was not onely in regard of its own nature but much more in the end for it was to serve the Duke of Burgundy in raising a War against France in the first view but in the conclusion to serve his own Purse both from Friends and Foes And yet this also passed without much
men of so high accomplishment And by this means Lordship once bringing therewith both Authority and Power unto Kings before Kings grew jealous of their greatness in these latter days is become a meer Jelly and neither able to serve the interest of Kings if the people should bestir themselves nor their own any longer Henceforth the Commons of England are no mean persons and their Representative of such concernment as if Kings will have them to observe him he must serve them with their Liberties and Laws and every one the publick good of the people No man's work is beneath no man 's above it the best honour of the Kings work is to be Nobilis servitus as Antigonus said to his Son or in plain English Supream Service above all and to the whole I now conclude wishing we may attain the happiness of our Forefathers the ancient Saxons Quilibet contentus sorte propria A VINDICATION Of the ancient way of PARLIAMENTS In ENGLAND THe more Words the more Faults is a divine Maxime that hath put a stop to the publishing of this Second Part for some time but observing the ordinary humour still drawing off and passing a harsher Censure upon my intentions in my First Part than I expected I do proceed to fulfil my course that if Censure will be it may be upon better grounds when the whole matter is before Herein I shall once more mind that I meddle not with the Theological Right of Kings or other Powers but with the Civil Right in Fact now in hand And because some mens Pens of late have ranged into a denial of the Commons ancient Right in the Legislative power and others even to adnul the Right both of Lords and Commons therein resolving all such power into that one principle of a King Quicquid libet lìcet so making the breach much wider than at the beginning I shall intend my course against both As touching the Commons Right joyntly with the Lords it will be the main end of the whole but as touching the Commons Right in competition with the Lords I will first endeavour to remove out of the way what I find pulished in a late Tractate concerning that matter and so proceed upon the whole The subject of that Discourse consisteth of three parts one to prove that the ancient Parliaments before the thirteenth Century consisted onely of those whom we now call the House of Lords the other that both the Legislative and Judicial Power of the Parliament rested wholly in them Lastly that Knights Citizens and Burgesses of Parliament or the House of Commons were not known nor heard of till punier times than these This last will be granted viz. That their several Titles of Knights Citizens and Burgesses were not known in Parliament till of latter times Nevertheless it will be insisted upon that the Commons were then there The second will be granted but in part viz. That the Lords had much power in Parliament in point of Jurisdiction but neither the sole nor whole The first is absolutely denied neither is the same proved by any one instance or pregnant ground in all that Book and therefore not clearly demonstrated by Histories and Records beyond contradiction as the title-Title-page of that Book doth hold forth to the World. First because not one instance in all that Book is exclusive to the Commons and so the whole Argument of the Discourse will conclude Ab Authoritate Negativa which is no Argument in humane testimony at all Secondly The greatest number of instances in that Book are by him supposed to concern Parliaments or General Councils of this Nation holden by the Representative thereof whereas indeed they were either but Synodical Conventions for Church-matters whereunto the poor Commons he well knoweth might not come unless in danger of the Canons dint or if they did yet had they no other work there than to hear learn and receive Laws from the Ecclesiasticks And the Lords themselves though present yet under no other Notion were they than as Counsel to the King whom they could not cast out of their Council till after-ages though they often endeavoured it Thirdly The Author of that Tractate also well knoweth that Kings usually made Grants and Infeodations by advice of the Lords without the aid of the Parliament And it is no less true that Kings with the Lords did in their several Ages exercise ordinarily Jurisdiction in cases of distributive Justice especially after the Norman entrance For the step was easie from being Commanders in War to be Lords in Peace but hard to lay down that power at the Foot of Justice which they had usurped in the rude times of the Sword when men labour for Life rather than Liberty and no less difficult to make a difference between their deportment in commanding of Souldiers and governing of Countrymen till Peace by continuance had reduced them to a little more sobriety Nor doth it seem irrational that private differences between Party and Party should be determined in a more private way than to trouble the whole Representative of the Kingdom with matters of so mean concernment If then those Councils mentioned by the Author which concern the King's Grants and Infeodations and matters of Judicature be taken from the rest of the Precedents brought by him to maintain the thing aimed at I suppose scarce one Stone will be left for a Foundation to such a glorying Structure as is pretended in the Title-page of that Book And yet I deny not but where such occasions have befaln the Parliament sitting it hath closed with them as things taken up by the way Fourthly It may be that the Author hath also observed that all the Records of Antiquity passed through if not from the hands of the Clergie onely and they might think it sufficient for them to honour their Writings with the great Titles of men of Dignity in the Church and Commonwealth omitting the Commons as not worthy of mention and yet they might be there then present as it will appear they were in some of the particular instances ensuing to which we come now in a more punctual consideration The first of these by his own words appear to be a Church-mote or Synod it was in the year 673 called by the Archbishop who had no more power to summon a Parliament than the Author himself hath And the several Conclusions made therein do all shew that the People had no work there as may appear in the several Relations thereof made by Matthew Westminster and Sir Henry Spelman an Author that he makes much use of and therefore I shall be bold to make the best use of him that I can likewise in vindicating the truth of the point in hand For whatever this Council was it is the less material seeing the same Author recites a Precedent of Aethelbert within six years after Austin's entry into this Island which was long before this Council which bringeth on the Van of all the rest of