now and for many ages past allowed and gave the reason of it multis sane respectus esse debet ac multa diligentia ne quis pacem Regis infringat maxime in ejus vicinia for that there ought to be a more than ordinary respect had thereunto and much diligence used that none should break the Kings peace more especially so near his House which must of necessity and by all the rules of Reason and Interpretation of Laws and the meaning of the Law-giver be only understood to referre unto the peace and quiet of his own House and Servants and not unto the Kings care of the publique and universal peace of the Kingdome which was not be streightned or pend up in so narrow a room or compass when as many of his other Laws did at the same time provide for the universal peace and this only aimed at the particular peace and tranquillity of himself and his Family Nor can it appear to have been any intention of that foresighted and considerate Prince that any Sheriffes or Bayliffs should upon all occasions false or malitious or trivial suggestions presume to Arrest and hale from his Palace or Service any of the necessary Attendants upon his Person Majesty and Honour or be the sawcy and irreverent Infringers of their peace which by that Law Intituled De pace Curiae Regis the peace of the Kings Court or Palace he took so great a care to preserve At the Parliament of Clarindon holden by King Henry the Second in Anno Dom. 1164. When that Prince's troublesome Raign was afflicted with the Rebellion of his Sons and Domineering of a Powerful Clergy backt by the Papal power and Insolency it was not thought to be either unreasonable or illegal when Excommunications which the lofty Clergy of those times were not willing to have clipped or limited and the Thunderbolts fear or fury thereof did farre exceed any effect or consequence of an utlary to ordain That Nec aliquis Dominicorum Ministrorum Regis excommunicetur nec terrae alicujus eorum sub Interdicto ponantur nisi prius Dominus Rex si in terra fuerit Conveniatur That none of the Kings Servants or Officers be excommunicated or their Lands interdicted untill the King if he be in the Kingdome be first Attended And the reason of this Law was saith Sir Edward Cook for that the Tenures by grand Serjeanty and Knights service in Capite were for the Honour and defence of the Realm and concerning those that served the King in his Houshold their continual Service and attendance of the King was necessary And Glanvil who was Lord Chief Justice of England and wrote in the Raign of King Henry the second or of King Richard the first of the antient Laws and Customs of England if that Book as some have thought were not written rather in his name then by him howsoever it is ancient and allowed both here and in Scotland to be very Authentick saith that Per servitium Domini Regis rationâ—biliter essoniare potest et cum in Curia probatur hoc essonium et admittitur remanebit loquela sine die donec constiterit â—um ab illo servitio domini Regis rediisse Vnde hi qui assidue sunt in servitio Domini Regis Cui necessitates omnes forenses cedunt to which all other businesses or occasions saith the Learned Spelman in his gloss upon Essoines are to give place ut Servientes ipsius hoc Essonio non gaudebunt Ergo circa eorum personas observabitur solitus cursus Curiae et Juris ordo That a Defendant or Tenant being in the service of the King may rationally be essoyned or for that time be excused and when the Essoyne or excuse is proved in Court and admitted the Action or plea shall be without day and suspended untill it shall happen that he be retorned out of the Kings Service but those that be in the Kings daily Service as his ordinary Servants are not to be allowed such an Essoyne or excuse therefore as to their persons the accustomed course of the Court and order of Law is to be observed but doth not declare what that solitus Curfus Curiae et juris ordo that accustomed course and order of Law in case of the Kings Servants in ordinary then was Or whether their priviledge was not so great and notorious as not to need any Essoine Yet as the Law then was saith that where sometimes both the Plaintiffe and the Defendant did not appear but made default tunc in Domini Regis voluntate vel ejus Justitiariorum erit si voluerint versus utrumque contemptum Curiae vel falsum clamorem prosequi then it shall be in the good pleasure of the King or his Judges if they will prosecute either against the Defendant for his Contempt or against the Plantiffe for his not Prosecution By which again the King was at his liberty to protect or priviledge his Servant in ordinary if the Law had not allowed them any such priviledge as well as to grant his Writ directed to the Judges ad warrantizandum to allow or receive an Essoine for one that was in servitio Regis in his Service recited by Glanvil with an Ideo vobis mando quod pro absentia sua illius diei non ponatis in defaltam nec in aliquo sit perdens therefore I command our Kings not then in their mandates writs or Patents speaking in the plural number as we and us c. You that you enter not a default against the Defendant or Tenant for his absence or not appearing at the day appointed and that he be not damnified thereby And in that Kings Raign and the beginning of the Raign of King Richard the first whilst Chief Justice Glanvil attending his Court and Justice his Warrs in the Holy Land died at Acon and in all those foregoing times and ages it was not probable that any Inroads should be made upon that antient just and rational priviledge of the Kings Domestiques or other Servants in ordinary for that some of the Stewards and great Officers of the Kings most honourable Houshold who had under their several Kings the protection as well as Government of the Servants in ordinary of the Royal Family as Prince Henry the eldest Son of King Henry the second and William Longchampe in the first year of the Raign of King Richard the first Lord Chancellour of England were whilst they held their several other places in the Kings Courts successively Lord Chief Justices of England and attended in the Kings Court. And it appeareth by Glanvil that Actions or Summons or Attachments of Debt and other process were then not infrequently directed to the Sheriffe of the County where the Defendant dwelt made retornable coram me i.e. Domino Rege vel Justitiis meis i.e. Justitiis suis before the King or his Justices in the abstract apud Westmonasterium at Westminster i.e. The Kings House or
against the Legality of this Court in the Reigns of King Henry the seventh Henry the eighth Edward the sixth Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth or since although Sir Edward Coke being unwilling to allow it to be a Court legally constituted as not founded by any Prescription or Act of Parliament hath thrown it under some scruples or objections with which the former Ages and Wisemen of this Nation thought not fit to trouble their Times and Studies that Court being not only sometimes imployed in the determining of Cases and Controversies irremedial in the delegated Courts of Justice out of the Palace Royal or by the Privy Council but concerning the Kings Domesticks or Servants in Ordinary as may be seen in the 33 year of the Reign of K. Henry the eighth in the Case of David Sissel of Witham in the County of Lincoln Plaintiff against Richard Sissel his Brother Yeoman of the Kings Robes for certain Lands lying in Stamford in the said County of Lincoln formerly dismissed by the Kings most Honourable Privy Council wherein the said David Sissel was enjoyned upon pain of Imprisonment to forbear any clamour further to be made to the Kings Grace touching the Premises In the second and third years of King Philip and Queen Mary Sir John Browne Knight one of the two Principal Secretaries to the King and Queens Majesties was a Plaintiff in that Court and in the thirteenth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Sir James Crofts Knight Comptroller of the Queens Majesties Houshold against Alexander Scoffeild for Writings and Evidences in the Defendants Custody And those great assistants Lords and Bishops Commissionated by the King as his Council or Commissioners did sometimes in that Court as in the thirtieth year of the Reign of King Henry the eighth superintend some Causes appealed aswell from the Lord Privy Seal as the Common Law and Sir John Russel Knight Lord Russel the same man or his Father being in an Act of Parliament in the thirteenth year of the Reign of King Edward the Fourth wherein he with the Archbishop of Canterbury and others were made Feoffees of certain Lands to the use and for performance of the Kings last Will and Testament stiled Master John Russel his Majesties Keeper of the Privy Seal was in that Court made a Defendant in the first year of the Reign of King Edward the sixth to a Suit Petition or Bill there depending against him although he was at that time also that Great and Ancient Officer of State called the Lord Privy Seal there having been a Custos Privati Sigilli a Keeper of the Privy Seal as early as the later end of King Edward the first or King Edward the second or the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the third about which time Fleta wrote nor was it then mentioned as any Novelty or new Office the Lord Privy Seal or Keepers of the Kings Privy Seal having ever since the eighteenth year of the Reign of King Henry the seventh if not long before until that fatal Rebellion in the later end of the Reign of that incomparable and pious Prince King Charles the Martyr successively presided and been Chief Judges in that Court which was not understood to be illegal in the twentieth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when in a Case wherein George Ashby Esq was Complainant against William Rolfe Defendant an Injunction being awarded against the Defendant not to prosecute or proceed any further at the Common Law and disobeyed by the procurement of the said William Rolfe it was ordered That Francis Whitney Esq Serjeant at Arms should apprehend and arrest all and every person which should be found to prosecute the said Defendant contrary to the said Injunction and commit them to the safe custody of the Warden of the Fleet there to remain until order be taken for their delivery by her Majesties Council of that Court by Authority whereof the said William Rolfe was apprehended and committed to the Fleet for his Contempts but afterwards in further contempt the said William Rolfe's Attorney at the Common Law prosecuting a Nisi prius before Sir Christopher Wray then Lord Chief Justice of the Queens Bench against the Complainant in Guildhall London the said Attorney was then und there presently taken out of the said Court by the said Serjeant at Arms and committed to the Fleet. Nor by Sir Henry Mountà gue Knight Earl of Manchester who being the Son of a Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench was in Legibus Angliae enutritus in praxi legum versatissimus a great and well-experienced Lawyer and from his Labour and Care therein ascended to the Honour and Degree of Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench from thence to that of Lord Treasurer of England thence to be Lord President of the Kings most Honourable Privy Council and from thence to be Lord Privy Seal and for many years after sitting as Supreme Judge and Director of the Court of Requests in the Reign of King James and King Charles the Martyr together with the four Masters of Requests his Assessors and Assistants in that Honourable and necessary Court Which Office or Place à Libellis Principis of Master of Requests having been long ago in use in the Roman Empire and those that were honoured therewith with maximorum culmine dignitatum digni men accounted worthy of the most honourable nnd eminent Imployments and that Office or Place so highly esteemed as that great and ever famous Lawyer Papinian who was stiled Juris Asylum the Sanctuary or Refuge of the Law did under the Emperor Severus enjoy the said Office to whom his Scholar or Disciple Vlpian afterwards succeeded and with our Neighbours the French summo in honore sunt are very greatly honoured quibus ab Aulâ Principis abesse non licet and so necessary as not at any time to be absent from the Court or Palace of the Prince The Masters of Requests are and have been with us so much regarded and honoured as in all Assemblies and Places they precede the Kings Learned Council at Law and take place of them and amongst other Immunities and Priviledges due unto them and to the Kings Servants are not to be enforced to undergo or take upon them any other inferior Offices or Places in the Commonwealth There being certainly as much if not a greater Reason that the King should have a Court of Requests or Equity and Conscience where any of his Servants or Petitioners are concerned as the Lord Mayor of London who is but the Kings Subordinate Governour of that City for a year should have a Court of Conscience or Requests in the City of London for his Servants or the Freemen and Citizens thereof The Rights and Conveniences of our Kings of England doing Justice to their Domestick or Houshold Servants within their Royal Palaces or Houses or the virge thereof and not remitting them to other Judicatures together
with the Duty and Respects never to be denied to Superiority in order more especially to Government being as well to be allowed unto our Kings and Princes and consistent with right Reason as it was in the more ancient times of the Empire or Rome when the Magister Officiorum or Steward of the Emperors House or Palace cui totius Palatii cura pertinuit to whom the whole care of their Houshold did appertain apud quem tam in Civilibus quà m Criminalibus causis respondere tenentur and before whom all the Servants of the Houshold were obliged to answer as well in Causes Civil as Criminal could do no less then incite and advise them so watchfully to guard the necessary and allowed Priveledges of their Servants warranted by the dictates of right Reason and our own Laws as well as the Laws and Customs of many of our neighbour Nations And therefore by an Act of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Richard the second confirmed by another in the twelfth it was ordained That those that raised horrible and false lies against the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons great Nobility and great Men of the Realm as also of the Chancellor Treasurer Clerks of the Privy Seal Stewards of the Kings House being the more special and eminent part of his Domestick Servants and those that did attend him and in ancient and more respectful Times and Ages to the Servants and Honour of Princes did wear no less a Title than Proceres Palatii Lords or Men of great eminency in the Palaces of Kings and Emperors Justices of the one Bench or the other and other great Officers of the Realm whereby debates and discords might arise betwixt the said Lords or the Lords and Commons should be taken and imprisoned until they had found him that first moved it and if they could not should be punished by the advice of the Kings Council And in the ninth year of his Reign John de Leicester one of the Clerks of the Chancery being sued in the Court of Common Pleas by the name of John de Sleford of the County of Leicester for a Debt of 24 l. 16 s. and after his Writ of Priviledge out of the Chancery which commanded the Justices of the said Court of Common Pleas to surcease any further proceeding in that Action being constrained to bring his Writ of Error to reverse a Judgment thereupon notwithstanding had against him the King pro eo quòd principale placitum loquelae praedictae ad cognitionem Cancellarii nostri nullius alterius juxta consuetudinem Cancellariae merè pertinet ex consequenti ejus accessarium ad eundem Cancellarium pertinere debet volentes Jurisdictionem Privilegium Consuetudinem hujusmodi à tam longo tempore obtenta approbata Illaesa firmiter observare in regard that the principal Plea or Suit aforesaid belonged only to the cognisance of his Chancellor and none other according to the custom of the Chancery and that by consequence the cognisance of the Accessary or any thing concerning the said principal Plea or Suit belonged to the Chancellors determination and was willing to preserve the said Jurisdiction Custom and Priviledge for so long a time continued and approved commanded the Record and Process aforesaid with all which thereunto appertained to be sent and certified into the Chancery that he might do thereupon as to Justice appertaineth In the 35 year of the Reign of King Henry the sixth the Abbot of Westminster having an Action depending in the Court of Common Pleas against one of the Yeomen of the Kings Buttery and an Essoin being cast and allowed that he was in the Kings Service the King at the day appointed and given by the Essoin sent his Writ of Privy Seal to the Justices of that Court to signifie that the Defendant was in his Service before the day given by the Essoin and at the same day and every time sithence By a Statute made in the third year of the Reign of King Henry the seventh it was declared to be Felony for making Confederacies though not brought to effect or not so far as to an overt act our Laws declaring that affectus non punitur thoughts and intentions only are not to be punished to imagine the death of the King or of any Lord of this Realm or any other person sworn to the Kings Council Steward Treasurer or Comptroller of the Kings House by any of the Kings Houshold Servants and ordained That such Offences should be inquired by 12 sad men of the Cheque Roll of the Kings Houshold and determined before the Steward Treasurer and Comptroller or any two of them Which may evidence the intention of that King and his greater Council the Parliament to submit as little as might be such Offences of his Menial Servants unto the Judgment and Determinations of his Court of Kings Bench which otherwise was the most proper Court and means for the Trial thereof In the Reign of King Henry the eighth George Ferrers Gentleman his Servant and a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament being arrested and taken in Execution and Sir Thomas Moyle Knight then Speaker of the House of Commons and the Knights and Burgesses in Parliament assembled sending the Serjeant at Arms attending upon them to the Compter in Breadstreet in London where the said George Ferrers was detained a Prisoner to demand him the Officers of the City and others assaulted and grievously misused him of which a Complaint being made to the King he called before him all the Judges of the Kingdom declared unto them That he being Head of the Parliament and attending in his own Person upon the business thereof ought in reason to have Priviledge for him and all his Servants attending there upon him so as if Mr. Ferrers had been no Burgess or Member of Parliament but only his Servant that in respect thereof he was to have a Priviledge as well as any other To which all the Judges declaring their assent by Sir Edward Mountague Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings Bench the Grandfather of the now Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold an Order was made to fine the Sheriffs of London punish the Riotors and deliver Mr. Ferrers out of Prison but in compassion of the Creditor an Order was made that he should not lose his Money for which he had taken him in Execution And so great a regard was in that Kings Reign had of the Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber as that great and imperious Favorite Cardinal Wolsey Archbishop of York being at Cawood Castle in Yorkshire arrested by the Kings command by the Earl of Northumberland attended by Mr. Welch one of the Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber of High Treason and being unwilling to obey the Earls Authority unless he would shew the Kings Commission for it which the Earl refused to do the Contest at the last
of Her Majesties Courts at Westminster and thereby Her Majesties Subjects and Officers so terrified that they dare not Sue or Execute Her Majesties Lawes Her Writs and Commandments Divers others have been sent for by Pursevants and brought to London from their dwellings and by unlawful Imprisonments have been constrained not only to withdraw their Lawful Suites but have been also compelled to pay the Pursevants so bringing such Persons great summes of money All which upon Camplaint the Judges are bound by Office and Oath to relieve and help By and according to Her Majesties Laws And where it pleaseth your Lordships to will divers of us to set down in what cases a Prisoner sent to Custody by Her Majesty or her Council is to be detained in Prison and not to be delivered by Her Majesties Court or Judges we think that if any Person be committed by Her Majesties Command from Her Person which may be understood to be so when it is by the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings house or other great Offâ—cers of the Houshold who are commonly Privy Councellors and do it by their Princes Authority or by Order from the Council Board And if any one or two of the Council Commit one for High Treason such Persons so in the Cases before Committed may not be delivered by any of Her Courts without due tryal by the Law and Judgement of acquittal had Nevertheless the Judges may award the Queens Writ to bring the Bodies of such Prisoners before them and if upon return thereof the causes of their Commitment be certified to the Judges as it ought to be then the Judges in the cases before ought not to deliver him but to remand the Prisoner to the place from whence he came which cannot conveniently be done unless notice of the cause in general or else in special be given to the Keeper or Goaler that shall have the custody of such a Prisoner In which Remonstrance or Address it doth not appear that any Commitments therein complained of were for Arresting any of the Queens Servants without leave first demanded or that any of the matters therein suggested were for that only cause or before Judgements or Execution obtained some of them being expresly mentioned to have been after Judgements and no certain evidence more than for what came directly unto those Learned Judges by the before mentioned Mandate of the Queen for the supposed grievances therein which though much be attributed to the well weighed wisdom of those grave Judges and that their Information had as much of Truth as without a hearing of all parties and legal Examination of Witnesses could be found in it cannot be presumed to be had in a judiciall way after Trials or Convictions but received and taken in from the murmur and Complaints of some Attorneys or Parties only concerned without hearing of the other side or parties or that it was so prevalent with the Queen as to make any Order or restraint or cause any Act of Parliament to be made for that purpose For it will not come within the Compass or Confines of any probability or reasonable construction that those Reverend and Learned Judges Sir Christopher Wray and Sir Edmond Anderson who together with Sir Gilbert Gerard Master of the Rolls had in the case betwixt the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and Sir Owen Hopton Knight Lieutenant of the Tower of London In the seven and twentieth year of Her Raign which was but seven years before Certified under their hands unto Sir Thomas Bromley Knight Lord Chancellor and others of Her Privy Council that such persons as are daily attendant in the Tower serving Her Majesty the which was more remote from Her Person and Presence of Her Royal Residence or Palace at White-hall Were to be Priviledged and not to be Arrested upon any plaint in London but for Writs of Execution or Capias Utlagatum or such like they did think they ought to have no Priviledge And that Master Lieutenant ought to return every Habeas Corpus out of any Court at Westminster So as the Justices before whom it shall be returned as the cause shall require may either remand it with the body or retain the matter before them and deliver the body as Justice shall require would complain of Commitments of such as Arrested any of Her Servants without leave when it might be so easily had and the Lord Chamberlain of that time was likely to be as little guilty of enforcing Creditors to withdraw their Suits or loose their debts as the Lord Chamberlain and other great Officers of the Royal Houshold have been since or are now Nor do the words of that Information import or point at the Marshalsea of the Queens Court or Her Messengers to whom as the Kings Officers or Ministers of Justice the Queens Writ might have been brought or directed the sending of Pursevants there remonstrated being more likely to have been for some other Concernments and not for Arresting without leave which for ought that appears was never yet in foro Contradictorio upon any Cause or Action argued solemnly at the Bar and Bench adjudged to be a breach of any of the Laws of England or Liberties of the Subjects or not to be any good Cause of Arresting or Imprisoning such as in despite of Majesty would in ConContempt thereof make it their business especially when they needed not to do it to violate and infringe the Royal Jurisdictions and reasonable Customs of their Sovereign and Protector and the long ago and for many ages allowed Priviledges of their Servants And therefore William Earl of Pembroke L. Chamberlain of the Kings House a man very zealous for the Peoples Rights and Liberties may be believed not to have transgressed therein when he did about the latter end of the Reign of King James give His Warrant to one of the Kings Messengers of the Chamber to take into His Custody and bring before him one Mr. Sanderson for causing Sir Edward Gorge one of the Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber to be Arrested without Licence first obtained and being in the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr Lord Steward of the Kings most Honourable Houshold did commit a Clerk or Servant to a Serjeant at Law to the Prison of the Marshalsea for Arresting one of the Kings Servants without Licence and when he was bailed by the Judges upon a Writ of Habeas Corpus committed him again and being let at Liberty the second time upon a Writ of Habeas Corpus was again Committed by him and could not be Released until he had set at Liberty the Kings Servant And Philip Earl of Montgomery Lord Chamberlain of the King in His Most Honourable Houshold when he did the first day of November 1626. direct his Warrant to all Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs and Constables c. to permit Mr. Thomas Musgrave of Idnel in the County of Cumberland His Majesties Muster Master for the County of Westmerland to come
and barbarous manner carry and hale them along the streets to Prison being at noon day refusing to carry them first before a Magistrate as they ought to have done and as was by the said Gentlemen demanded however vpon calling some of the said parties complained of before us and entring into examination of the business we found in general that the carriage of the said Officers and their assistants had been such as was informed yet because the more particular inquiry thereof was a work not so fit to trouble the Board withal we have thought good therefore to refer the due examination thereof to your Lordship letting you to know that if as is conceived you understood of the miscarriage of the said Officers and past it over without reproof that you have wilfully failed both in discretion and duty for that you cannot be ignorant that the proper and usual way of proceeding in a case of this nature against his Majesties Servants had been not by committing them to Prisons but by an address or appeal to the Lord Chamberlain of His Majesties Houshold or in his absence to such other Principal Officers unto whom it appertains to give redress and therefore as the more we consider of it the more we marvel at the insolent carriage of your Officers and the Connivency of your Lordship and other the Chief Magistrates of the City So you are to know that His Majesty and this Board expects not only a good accompt from you in the examination and proceedings of the said Officers and others their assistants in this particular but that His Majestie expects and requires at your hands not as a Respect only but as a Duty that hereafter upon any the like occasions happening within the City concerning His Servants the proceedings against them be by Appeal and Information first to the Lord Chamberlain or in his absence to such other Principal Officers to whom it properly appertaineth and not by Commitments to Goals and Prisons at your pleasure And so we bid your Lordship very heartily Farewell From Whitehall the sixteenth of February 1628. Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Lord President Lord High Chamberlain Earl Marshal Lord Steward Earl of Holland Earl of Danby Chancellor of Scotland Lord Viscount Dorchester Lord Viscount Wilmot Lord Newburgh To Sir Richard Deane Lord Mayor of London And in the year 1629 granted a warrant for the apprehension of Humphrey Worrall for the Arresting of one of His Majesties Pensioners In the year 1630 the like against Maurice Evans for serving a Subpoena in the Court against John Durson The like for the apprehension of Edward Clark and Samuel Farrier of Canterbury upon the complaint of Thomas Potter for abusing him being imployed in the Execution of a Warrant A Warrant for the Commitment of William Acheson to the Gatehouse for transgressing his Order in arresting Master Shaw and giving his Lordship no notice A Warrant for the apprehension of Tirrell and David Edwards upon the complaint of Richard Eyre for detaining his Horse A Warrant dated the two and twentieth day of November in the year aforesaid for the apprehension of Master Morgan Goodwin Master William Small Under Sheriff of Middlesex and Thomas Brook a Bayliff upon the complaint of Doctor Robotham for an arrest Whereupon they being apprehended did the five and twentieth day of that November procure an Habeas Corpora to be brought to Carter the Messenger to whose custody they were Committed and were thereupon Released but presently by another Warrant his Lordship committed them to the charge of William Wattes The Second of February in the same year the said Lord Chamberlain sent his letter unto the Sheriff of Middlesex in these words Sir I understand that Sir John Wentworth is arrested upon an Execution at the suite of one Beeston and now remaining in your Custody and that some others have Petitioned me wherein when I have found cause I have given way under my hand if any other which have not leave shall offer to bring any Actions against him I do expect and require that you forbear to receive or entertain them unless you see my hand for your Warrant As you will answer the contrary The twelfth of February 1630 granted a Warrant for the Commitment of Symon Hayton and William Taylor for charging the said Sir John VVentworth in Execution being under arrest upon leave granted In the year 1631 a Warrant for the apprehension of Richard Graunt Fowler and John Havit upon the complaint of William Burton a messenger of the Court of Wards The like for the apprehension of Samuel Twynne and Stephen Symons for the Arrest of Ralph Short a post Master A Warrant to apprehend Master Roger Vrmiseon an Attorney of the Court of Common Pleas upon the complaint of Mr. Edward Crofts for an arrest without leave A Warrant for the apprehension of Masier upon the complaint of Nicholas Sherman for distreyning of his goods for his not appearance at the Marsh Court at Greenwich A Warrant for the Commitment of Peter Price to the Marshalsea for serving a Subpoena upon Master George Ravenscroft in the Council Chamber at Whitehall A Warrant for the apprehension of Robert Champion a Serjeant in the Poultry Compter for taking a Prisoner from the Kings Messenger by a Writ probably an Habeas Corpus out of the Kings Bench. In the year 1632 a warrant for the apprehension of John Perkins a Constable for serving the Lord Chief Justice's Warrant upon John Beard in Saint James's Park A Warrant for the Commitment of Leonard Ward a Clark of the Court of Common Pleas and Potters a Bayliff to the Marshalseas for arresting of Edward Pigot a Groom extraordinary without leave A Warrant for the apprehension of John Bishop one of the Lord Mayors Officers In the year 1633 a warrant for the apprehension of Anthony Tompson Clark John Richardson and others for the arrest of George Nicholson a Yeoman of the Guard The like to apprehend Griffin Jones upon the complaint of John Heydon one of His Majesties Musicians for abusive Language given him as fidling Rogue c. The like to apprehend Arthur Toogood and Morgan Castle Butchers for assaulting Mr. Pitcarnes the Master of the Hawkes man The like for the apprehension of Geoffrey Brittingham Anthony Carnaby and William Marbury upon the Complaint of Robert Wood for Actions laid upon him without leave A Warrant to the Bayliff of Westminster to forbear to admit any Writs or Actions against Sir Henry Wotton Knight His Majesties Servant sworn in the year 1627 one of the Gentlemen of His Majesties Privy Chamber Extraordinary in the name of any Person or Persons whatsoever but such as shall have leave Granted unto them under the Lord Chamberlains hand In the year 1635 a Warrant for the apprehension of one Master Atkinson and divers others for the arresting of the Lord Rich being not long before sworn a Gentleman of the Kings Privy Chamber Extraordinary In the year 1636
a certificate for Sir Gilbert Houghton Knight one of the Kings Servants enumerating Particular Priviledges for every of the Kings Servants viz. Not to be arrested without leave first obtained not to be warned or summoned to attend at Assizes or Sessions not to be impannelled upon enquests or juries not to serve in the Train bands nor to be chosen in Offices c. In the year 1637 a warrant for the apprehension of Francis Grove of Southwark Grocer upon the complaint of the Earl of Morton Captain of the Guard for sending his warrant being in Commission for the New Corporation for certain Yeomen of the Guard in Ordinary to compell them to serve in Person with their Arms. The like for the apprehension of Isaac Walter in Kent upon the complaint of Henry Hodsal a Yeoman of the guard for undue molestation of him by suing of him to the Utlary and seeking satisfaction in extremity upon his Goods and Chattels without detaining his person The like against Ezechiel Johnson Clerk and John VVilcox an Officer of the Lord Mayor of London for an Arrest of Master Grimsdich of the Great Wardrobe without leave A warrant for the apprehension of Alderman Andrews and of Kenelme Smith and John VVright Officers of the Sheriffs of London for the arresting of Mr. Laurence Hilliard Smith and VVright being thereupon Committed to the Marshalsea And in the same year a Petition of one James Goodland against John All of VVapping concerning a Debt of 400 l. pretended to be owing to him by the said John All was answered by the said Lord Chamberlain in these words I desire Mr. Reeve to call John All before him and to enjoyn him to take some speedy course for the satisfaction of this debt for which if he cannot prevail with him he is to let me understand so much whereupon I will take further Order In the year 1638 a Warrant was granted by the said Lord Chamberlain for the apprehension of Thomas Tyrrill Gent. VVilliam Wrynne his servant Thomas Parker a Constable Thomas Drew a Bricklayer and Edward Spooner all of the Town of Newington upon the complaint of Tucker one of the Yeomen of the Guard for being by them set in the Stocks Granted a warrant for the apprehension of Marriot Hewes and Carter Marshall's men for the arresting of one Mr. Beiston His Majesties Servant without leave And the like for the apprehension of Robert Howse and Christopher Bagehot Constables in VVare Thomas Swinsteed Post Master and George his Brother for setting Robert Redbury Harbinger for the Huntsmen of the Buck-hounds in the Stocks who appearing were committed and afterwards Released In the year 1639 a warrant was granted by the said Lord Chamberlain for the apprehension of VVilliam Barker and other Bayliffs for the arresting of Robert Vnderwood a VVarder of the Tower of London and Ordered to pay him charges which they consented unto The like against Ralph Atkinson of Brainford and Edward Rabone a Marshals man for arresting of Mr. Thomas Lisle the Princes Barbor Extraordinary And the like against Edmond Griffin of Cheapside and Richard Stersaker for arresting of Mr. VVilliam Harbert In the year 1640 a warrant was granted by the said Lord Chamberlain for the apprehension of Jeoffrey Sharpe Hugh Osborne and William Sympson upon the complaint of Mr. Man one of the Kings Chaplains for an arrest The like to apprehend Humphrey Lea Ralph Reason and Henry Wickliffe for arresting and taking in Execution the goods of David Porrel without leave And the like for the apprehension of Charles Steward and William Wyamford upon the complaint of William Lenet a Yeoman of the Guard for an abuse and affront in the Streets That Excellent Prince under whose authority he acted being not only careful to maintain His Servants just Priviledges but to avoid any ill consequences which might happen by any abuse thereof being in the year of our Lord 1631 informed that one Thomas Barnes having been sworn one of the Grooms of His Majesties Chamber in Ordinary upon a pretence that he was one of the Company of Players who had a licence to Practice under the name of the Queen of Bohemia's Players whereas in truth the said Barnes was by Profession a Carpenter nor did profess the quality of a Stage Player but was dishonestly and sinisterly obtruded upon the said Lord Chamberlain by the false and fraudulent Suggestion of one Joseph Moore that followed business in the name of the said Company out of a corrupt end to derive unto himself a benefit by entitling the said Barnes unto the Priviledge and Protection of His Majesties Service and did most Injuriously seek to defraud men of their just debts had drawn men to be bound with him for great summes of money and exposed them to the danger of Imprisonment to the end therefore that His Majesties Service might be purged from the stain of so dishonest and foul proceedings the said Lord Chamberlain was commanded by His Majesty to call the said Barnes and discharge and dismiss him and cause his name to be blotted and razed out of the list of His Majesties Servants All or many of which upon due consideration had may shew the necessity aswell as legality of the cares of the said Chamberlain by and under His late Majesties Authority Anciently and by a long prescription of many ages vested in his and other the Honourable Offices of the Kings most Honourable Houshold And might more fully have been manifested if many of the Books of State Court Memorials and Records had not in the latter end of the Raign of King James been lost by the fire which at that time burnt the Signet-Office and other buildings and Repositories thereof at Whitehall and by other Books of that most Honourable House If those Sons of Spoil Plunder and Rapine the godless party of pretending holiness in the late confusions and Rebellion when the Frogs not by the hardening of our late blessed Kings heart but his too much trust and condescentions and the Almighties permission did go up and come into that house and into our Kings Bedchamber and into the houses of his servants and upon his people When our England was a valley of slaughter all the beauty of the Daughter of our Zion was departed the grievous revolters and those which walked with slanders and our adversaries were the chief in that desolate and by them misused palace had not left any more then three little Books of the Lord Chamberlains Registry against their wills conceal'd and rescued from the year 1625 being the first year of the Raign of His late Majesty of blessed Memory until the year of our Lord 1641. When our miseries and troubles began to craul and ingender In which small remains those most just and necessary priviledges of the Kings Servants contained which reason of State the Soveraignty of Princes can neither want nor suffer to be disused do amongst other things appear to have been so moderately
judged the King had done wrong and this was beyond their knowledge for the King might have committed them for other matters then they could have imagined and if they had bailed them it must have reflected upon the King that he had unjustly Imprisoned them and that the differences made in the Arguments of that Case betwixt remittitur and rimittitur quousque remitted or remitted how far or unto what Time he confest he could find no more in it but that they were new inventions to trouble old Records and Judge Doddridge said that for the difference betwixt remittitur and remittitur quousque he could never find any he had sate in the Court fifteen years and should know something surely if he had gone in a mill so long some dust would cleave to his Clothes And in the Petition of Right granted in the next ensuing year in the framing and procuring whereof Sir Edward Cook that Venerandus senex investigator legum Angliae very Reverend and great Lawyer whose Learned labors after his discontent for the loss of his place of Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings Bench and the former favors of King James tended as much as he could for the finding out and publishing of every thing that might advance the Peoples liberties but as little as might be for the Kings Just Rights and Prerogative assisted by that great Monarch of Letters and Learning Mr. Selden the Excellently Learned Sir Edwyn Sandys Sir Robert Philips Sir Dudly Digges Knights and other great Patriots and well wishers to the Peoples Liberties there was nothing omitted of their care and industry in the search and scrutiny of all that could be found of Law Learning Reason or Precedents to support the Subjects claims therein or effect their desires There is no restraint of that just Legal and very Antient Priviledge of the King and Queens Servants not to be Arrested or Imprisoned without Licence or leave first obtained of the Lord Steward Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold or those other great Officers of His House or Court to whom it appertained nor any thing directly or consultò urged against that necessary part of the Duty of Subjects to their Sovereign or Respects to Him in His Servants Nor in that fatal Remonstrance made by the House of Commons in the after long and over lengthened Parliament the fifteenth day of December 1641. wherein every thing that could be imagined or had but a face of a grievance in the government was too industriously amassed or mustered up was there any complaint of the Protections granted by the King or Priviledge of the Kings Servants in Ordinary from being arrested without Licence first had Neither in those high and mighty undutiful and unchristian like nineteen Propositions sent to His late Majesty in June 1642. whereby they denyed him the care and education of His Children office of a Common Parent to His People and a natural Father to His Children and would have gained to themselves or taken from him His Kingly Authority is there any thing in that particular complained of or desired in remedy of that since supposed evil But that assembly then called a Parliament were so far from hindring it as when they were afterwards Petitioned by divers Creditors against their own Priviledges and the Protections of themselves and their Servants they were pleased to answer that they would take it into their Consideration but in many years after were so busie in the Ruine of the Kingdom and a Purveyanâ—e of Places of honor and profit for themselves as the People had then and may yet have reason to believe they never intended to do it And were so unwilling to have some Prisoners Committed by them to be discharged by Bail upon Writs of Habeas Corpora as they bespoke it for their Priviledge to Commit Matthew Wren the late Bishop of Ely and let him continue 16 or 17 years a Prisoner in the Tower of London without shewing any Cause or making any Charge against him under a Colour and Pretense never to be justified that the Legislative Power and Soveraignty was Inhaerent and Radically in the People who had delegated and entrusted it unto them as the Aenigmatical and unknown Keepers of their Liberties whereby as they imagined their Commitees and Sub-commitees might take as Extravagant Liberties as themselves insomuch as when Mr. Edward Trussel a Loyal Citizen of London about the year 1643 brought his Habeas Corpus to be bailed upon that Parliaments Commitment for not payment of the twentieth part of his Computed Estate Serjeant John Wilde and Mr. Hill two Members of the House of Commons of the then miscalled Parliament came publickly to the Judge sitting in the Kings Bench and took such a course by Whispering and delivering Messages to him as the trembling Judge calling God to witness how willing he would be to do right and be afraid of no body declared it for a kinde of Law that he could not Bail any man where the Commitment was by such a Soveraign Court as the House of Commons in Parliament Who believed it to be so great an Incident and necessary requisite to their usurped Government as they did about the year 1645 Imprison a Citizen of London for Arresting a Nobleman of Germany for some Wares Trusted when he was but in the Company of some of the Parliament so called Members as they were going unto or coming from one of their Sumptuous or Thanksgiving Feasts or Dinners for success in their evil Actions And Oliver Cromwell their man of sin great Captain and Master of as much Perjury as he could himself Commit or drive others unto found it to be so necessary for the maintenance of His pretended State and unjust Authority enforced from the True Proprietor as he was pleased so to Indulge and Protect His Menial Servants with the like Priviledges as one Mewes who attended him could not be Indicted for perjury without Licence first obtained and one Captain William Sadlington having taken from a Dutch Merchant Residing in London Goods or Merchandise at Sea to the value of six or seven thousand pound or endamaged him as much and coming afterwards into England and for some special service done to that Protector of Mischief and Evil Designs being made one of his Domestiques or Servants in Ordinary the Dutch Merchant Commenceing an Action at Law against him for what he had lost and was damaged and causing him to be Arrested was not only with the Bailiffs that Arrested him Imprisoned but enforced before he could have his Liberty to discharge the said William Sadlington and Release his Action And some of his Major Gerals can if they please bear witness how much their Oliver and themselves protected his and their Menial Servants and extended the freedom from Arrest until leave or licence obteined as far as their Common Red-coated Souldiers and how much those Major Generals in their several Provinces did in other things all they could to Stifle
out of his place for Bribery and Extortion it was in the Sentence or Judgment given against him said that Sacramentum Domini Regis quod erga Populum habuit custodiendum â—regit maliciose false Rebelliter quantum in ipso fuit he had falsly malitiously and traiterously as much as in him lay broke or violated the Kings Coronation Oath which demonstrates that although he had at the same time violated his own Oath made unto the King when he was admitted into his Office or Place yet his fault was the greater in breaking the Kings Oath and that part of his Justice with which he was trusted For the Grants of the Judges Places by the King durante bene placito or quamdiu se bene gesserint during the Kings pleasure or as long as they do wel behave themselves the Kings Commissions of Oyer Terminer Et Gaola deliberanda of Gaol Delivery and to hear and determine Causes in their Circuits their Oathes besides their Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy taken at their admittance into their Places prescribed and directed in the 18th year of the reign of King Edward the third and administred by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keepers of the Great Seal of England for the time being That they the King and his People in the Office of Justice shall not counsel or assent to any thing that may turn unto his damage shall take no Fee or Robes of any but the King himself nor execute any Letters from him contrary to the Law but certifie him and his Councel thereof and shal procure the profit of the King and his Crown in all things that they may reasonably do the same in an Act of Parliament made in the 20th year of the Reign of that King they are expresly mentioned to be Deputed by the King to do Law and Right according to the usage of the Realm the Kings Writs directed unto them stiling them no otherwise then Justitiariis suis and those Courts the Kings Courts the acknowledgment of the Judges themselves in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and their readiness to obey all her lawful commands in the Case of Cavendish and that of Sir Edward Coke that the Judges are of the Kings Councel for proceedings in course of Justice their assisting the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England upon request or sending for some of them out of their own Courts into the Chancery their attending upon the King in his House of Peers in Parliament to assist and advise in matters of Law there debated when required but not with any power of Vote or decisive Judgment their often meetings out of their Courts altogether upon any of the Kings commands or references in causes difficult by Petition or Appeal to the King and their Opinions humbly certified thereupon and attending upon the King and his Councel upon matters doubtful wherein the ayde and advice of the Regal Authority was required and whether their Patents or Commissions be durante bene placito or quam diu se bene gesserint during the Kings pleasure or as long as they shall well behave themselves are void per demise le Roy by the death of the King that granted their Patents or Commissions and to be renewed at the pleasure of his Successor may abundantly evidence that they may not claim or justly be beleived to be independant Soveraign absolute or without an Appeal to their King and Soveraign who granteth amongst many other Offices in the said Courts the Office and Place of Warden of the Fleet by the Name of the Keeper of the Kings Pallace at Westminster aad the Office thereby to attend by him or his Deputy the Courts of Chancery Common-Pleas and Exchequer and keep in safe Custody the Prisoners committed by them when all the Writs and Process of those Courts are issued under his Name and Seal and all but the Chancery which are honoured by his own Teste are under the several Testes or Subscriptions as the Law intendeth of the Chief Justices or Judges thereof together with the Exemplifications of Fines Recoveries Verdicts and other Records in the Court of Common-Pleas and the Court of Kings-Bench and in their several and distinct Jurisdictions are subjected unto and dependant upon the Regal Authority Crown and Dignity And cannot be otherwise understood to be when our Kings have sometimes fined Judges for Extortion or Bribery as King Edward the first did Sir Ralph de Hengham and diverse other Judges in the 16th year of his Reign when the Judges in the â—aid Courts cannot ex officio pardon or discharge a fine or punishment imposed or inflicted by them upon Offenders nor without his Writ of Error amend or correct Errors committed by themselves after the Term ended wherein they were committed are if they exceed their bounds subject by his Writ punishment of Praemunire to a forfeiture of all their Lands Goods Estate of their Lands in Fee-Simple or for Life to have their Bodies imprisoned at the will of the King to be out of his Protection and when he as he pleaseth commandeth the Rolls and Records of the Courts of Chancery Kings-Bench and Common-Pleas to be brought into his Treasury or the Tower of London for safety adjourneth those Courts upon occasion of Pestilence or other reason of State or Warre as King Edward the first did to York where they continued for some years after that the Judges are by Office of Court to stay surcease in many things where they do perceive the King to be concerned either in point of profit or other concernment untill they have advised with the Kings Serjeants or Councel learned in the Law when the Writs of Prohibition frequently granted by the Court of Common-Pleas or Kings-Bench in his name do signifie that he hath haute Justice power and authority over those and the inferior Courts of Justice and by his Supreme Authority doth by his Legal Rescripts and Mandates issuing out of his High Court of Chancery upon any defects in his Subordinate Courts for want of power and authority consonant or agreeable to the rules of right reason and equity moderate the rigors of his Laws correct Errors and provide fitting remedies for all manner of Contingencies or Disorders happening in the course execution or manage of his Laws or Justice testified by his Injunctions out of the Chancery to stay the rigors and proceedings in the Courts of Common-Law Commissions of Trail Baston more rightly ottroy le Baston granted by King Edward the first to inquire of and punish misdemeanours riots extortions c. which the Courts of Justice then in being had cognisance of might have upon complaint punished redressed many other Commissions of that kind made out by that other of our Kings with Commissions of Assise Association cum multis aliis or the like the Writs of Rege in consulto
unto the Court and submit himself unto the Law which he did and was put to his fine gave sureties to pay it Which proofs and arguments touching the subordination of the Judges or their Courts of Justice are not nor ever were intended for the reverend Judges and Sages of the Law or the Students Professors and Practisers thereof whose learning and Judgments neither scrupled or needed it but unto those vulgar and mechanick busie headed and unquiet part of the People qui nesciunt se ignorare will not own any ignorance when they are most ignorant but will be sure to dislike every thing which they do not understand because they take their measures by the shortlines of their vulgar take and incomprehensive capacities which makes them to be so restless and unsatisfied in their mistakings and so lincked and wedded unto them I had not been so large in clearing that particular which unto some may seem more then requisite but that it may justly be feared that those opinions or impressions if not disâ—odged and fully convinced may as those long agoe condemned Heresies and Errors in the Church did in our late distractions and distempers rise up again under the pretence of new notions and gain a kind of Succession too like a perpetuity And therefore every man may without any the Incumbrances of doubts or controversies be assured CHAP. VII That the King or the great Officers of his Houshold may punish those that doe infringe his servants priviledges and that any of the Kings Servants in Ordinary being arrested without leave are not so in the custody of the Law as they ought not to be released untill they do appear or give Bayl to Appear and Answer the Action WHen it must or should be acknowledged that notwithstanding that by the Statutes made in the 37th and 38th years of the Reign of King Edward the third untrue Suggestions made to the King and his Councell were prohibited and to be punished and that by a Statute made in the 42 d. year of the Reign of that King no man was to be brought to answer any accusation to the King without praesentment before Justices or matter of Record yet matters extraordinary or suggestions which had truth or evidence to accompany them were not by any of those Acts of Parliament forbidden and howsoever that by a Statute or Act of Parliament made in the 17 th year of the Reign of King Charls the Martyr the Kings Privy Councel were restrained from intermedling in matters concerning Freeholds and the Properties of the Subject which comprehends many of the matters which may concern any man brought before them or accused yet there is no restraint of Arrests or sending for Delinquents by the Kings Messengers or prohibition against the right use of them or the high and super eminent authority of the King and the Lords of his Honourable Privy Councel in cases to prevent Duells and make abortive dangers and inconvenient to the publique punish Riots unlawfull Assemblies and misdemeanors beyond the reach and Authority of Justices of the Peace many other emergencies who may certainly as legally make use of Messengers or Serjeants at Arms to compell disobedient and refractory persons to appear before them as the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England by or under the Kings authority doth now and hath long agoe used to do in cases of contempt of the Processe of that Court after an Attachment with Proclamation and Commission of Rebellion or as the Lord Privy Seal did usually in the Court of Requests after the like Processe could not apprehend or take the person contemning his authority or not appearing before him for unto what purpose shall that honourable and venerable Assembly who Sir Edward Coke saith are Profitable instruments of the State and do bear part of the Soveraignâ— cares and imploy their time and endeavors in the Execution of the Duty of their Oathes and Places and that great trust incumbent upon them if they may not enjoy a coercive Power which the Judices paedanei petty Judicatures and even the Pye-Powder Courts of the Kingdome do enjoy or should make it their business to baffle their own authority and only send for People to come unto them when they please or when they are come before them do what they please but should within their Conusance and Jurisdiction according to a Maxime and Rule of the Civil Law well allowed and entertained by our Common-Law Cum aliquid conceditur id quoque concedi videtur sine quo id efficere non potest when any Jurisdiction or authority is granted that also which should support and attend it seemeth to be granted with it have as great a power of coercion to attend their authority as the Parliament the greater and more extraordinary Councel under the King and Head thereof is allowed and all other Councels in all the Kingdomes and Republiques of Christendome and are not therefore to be denied a just and competent Power to attend them in the administration of the affairs or business of the King intrusted unto them or to be debarred their inspection into all the affairs of the Kingdom concerning the good welfare of the King his People upon casualties accidents and cases extraordinary reformations of abuses by the Kings Edicts or Proclamations and in the deficiency of Laws in matters or things not foreseen or provided for by Laws which cannot be either so prophetick or comprehensive as to supply or give a Remedy to all things but must leave many things to ragione di Stato reason of State and the cares of our Pater Patriae Father of his Countrey and Kingdome to provide against necessities otherwise irresistable which can neither at all times tarry for the calling of a Parliament or the suffrages of it or be communicated unto the vulgar especially in unquiet or cloudy times when our Peace the blessing of our Nation cannot either enjoy her self or impart her comforts to the People without the more then ordinary vigilance of the King and his Privy Councell where the King himself is very often present especially in the absence of that as ancient as the Raign of King Edward the third then and many ages after well regulated Court of Star-Chamber many of whose Judges were the Kings Privy Councell the King himself being there rarely or seldome present and of that necessary Court of the High Commission preventing and watching over such abuses or misdemeanors as might either scandalize or disturbe the peace and good order of holy Church and such as served at the Altar And certainly that formerly great power and authority which resided in the Steward or Major-domo of the Kings Houshold who as Fleta hath recorded it enjoyed in the Reign of King Edward the first such an extraordinary power as he did vicem gerere exercise as it were the Office of Deputy to the Lord Chief Justice of England whose Office and place
holden at the good will and pleasure of our Kings and Princes And Time in his long Travels hath not yet so let fall and left behind him those reverential duties and personal services of our Dukes Earls and Baronage as to invite a disuse or discontinuance of them when they have of late time not only when Summoned perform'd several Ministerial Offices as at the Coronation of our Kings but at other great Solemnities and Festivals as at the Feast of Saint George Where in the year 1627. being the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr the Lord Percy afterwards Earl of Northumberland carryed the Sword before the King the Lord Cavendish and Wentworth bearing up his Trayn the great Basin was holden by the Earls of Suffolk Devonshire Manchester and Lindsey the Earl of Devonshire the same day serving as Cupbearer the Earl of Cleveland as Carver the Lord Savage as Sewer none of the Knights of the Garter that day officiating In the year of our Lord 1638. the Earls of Kent Hartford Essex Northampton Clare Carlisle Warwick Dover St. Albans and the Viscount Rochford were summoned by the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings houshold to attend at the instalment of the Prince Knight of the Garter and in the year 1640. amongst other young Noblemen appointed to attend the King at his going to the Parliament the Duke of Buckingham Earl of Oxford and Lord Buckhurst did bear up his Trayn The Earls of Leicester had the Office of Steward of England distinguished from and not so antient as the Steward of the Houshold who injoyed but an incertain estate of during pleasure annexed to the Earldom of Leicester and accounted as parcel of it William Marshal Earl of Pembroke to be Earl Marshal of England Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex to be Constable of England and to hold some principal part of their Lands and Estates by Inheritance in Fee or in Tayl by the Tenure of those very honourable Offices and Services as the Manor of Haresfield in the County of Gloucester per servitium essendi Constabular Angliae by the Service of being Constable of England and the Offices of Earl Marshal and Constable were distinct and antiently exercised in the Kings Court as Marescalcia Curiae Constabularia Curiae were afterwards as the Learned Sir Henry Spelman conceived by some extent and enlargement gained of their Jurisdictions or rather by the Tenure of some of their Lands separately stiled Constable and Earl Marshals of England leaving the Office or Title of Sub-Marshal or Knight-Marshal to exercise some part of the Office of the Earl-Marshals Jurisdictions as more appropriate to the Kings House or Courts of Justice some antient Charters of our Kings of England before the Reign of King Henyy the second and some in his Reign after his grant of the Constableship of England was made by him to Miles of Gloucester informing us by the Subscriptions of Witnesses that there was a Constable during the Kings pleasure and sometimes two besides the Constable of England who claimed and enjoyed that Office by Inheritance The Custody of the Castle of Dover and the keeping of the Cinque-Ports were granted by King Henry the sixth to Humphrey Duke of Buckingham and the Heirs Males of his body The Earls of Oxford for several Ages and the now Earl of Lindsey descending from them as Heir General now being Stewards Keepers or Wardens of the Forest of Essex and Keepers of King Edward the Confessors antient Palace of Havering at the Bower in the said County to him and his Heirs claimed and enjoyed from a Daughter and Heir of the Lord Badlesmere and he from a Daughter and Coheir of Thomas de Clare And some of our Nobility believed it to be no abasement of their high birth and qualities to be imployed in some other Offices or Imployments near the person or but sometimes residence of the King as to be Constable of his Castle or Palace of Windsor as the late Duke of Buckingham was in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr and Prince Rupert that now is or Keeper of the Kings house or Palace of VVoodstock and Lieutenent of VVoodstock Park as the late Earl of Lindsey was for the term of each of their natural lives And some illustrious and worthy Families as that of the Marshals Earls of Pembroke Butler now Duke of Ormond the Chamberlains antiently descended from the Earl of Tancarvil in Normandy who was hereditary Chamberlain of Normandy to our King Henry the first and our Barons Dispencers have made their Sirnames and those of their after Generations the grateful Remembrancers of their very honourable Offices and Places under their Soveraign it being accounted to be no small part of happiness to have lands given them to hold by grand Serjeanty some honourable Office or attendance upon our Kings at their Coronation as to carry one of the Swords before him or to present him with a Glove for his right hand or to support his right hand whilst he held the Virge Royal claymed by the Lord Furnivall or to carry the great Spurrs of Gold before him claymed by John Hastings the Son and Heir of John Hastings Earl of Pembroke or to be the Kings Cupbearer claymed by Sir John de Argentine Chivaler And some meaner yet worthy Families have been well content to have Lands given unto them and their Heirs to hold by the Tenures of doing some personal Service to the Kings and Queens of England at their Coronations the Service of the King or Prince being in those more virtuous times so welcome to all men and such a path leading to preferment as it grew into a Proverb amongst us not yet forgotten No Fishing to the Sea no Service to the King And was and is so much a Custome of Nations as in the German Empire long before the Aurea Bulla the Golden Bull or Charter of Charles the 4th Emperour was made in the year 1356. being about the middle of the Reign of our King Edward the third and not a new Institution as many have mistaken it as is evident by the preamble and other parts of that Golden Bull which was only made to preserve an Unity amongst the seven Electors and better methodize their business and Elections The Princes Electors were by the Tenure of their Lands and Dominions to perform several services to the Emperor and his Successors As the Prince Elector or Count Palatine of the Rhine was to do the service of Arch Sewer of the Empire at the Coronation of the Emperour or other great Assemblies the Duke of Saxony Stall Master or Master of ths Horse the Marquess of Brandenburgh Chamberlain the King of Bohemia Cup-bearer and in Polonia at this day Sebradousky the now Palatine of Cracow claimeth and enjoyeth by Inheritance the Office or Place of Sword-bearer to the Crown or King of Poland And so highly and rightly valued were those Imployments and Offices as they that did but
come with them to sach Convocation often times and commonly be arrested molested and inquieted the King willing gratiously in that behalf to provide for the security and quieâ—ness of the said Prelates and Clergy at the supplication of the said Prelates and Clergie and by the assent of the great men and Commons in Parllament assembled did ordain and establish that all the Clergy hereafter to be called to the Convocation by the Kings writ and their servants and familiars should for ever hereafter fully use and enjoy such liberty or defenee in coming tarrying and retorning as the great men and commonly of the Realm of England called or to be called to the Kings Parliament did enjoy or were wont to enjoy or in time to come ought to enjoy In the 23. and 24 th year of the Raigne of that King the Commons in Parliament did pray the King that every person being of the Lords or Commons House having any assault or fray made upon him being at the parliament or coming or going from thence might have the like remedy therefore as Sir Thomas Parre Knight had which shews that in those days they did not endeavour to punish any breach of their priviledges by their own authority but made their addresse by their petitions unto the King as their Soveraigne and Supreme for his Justice therein To which the King answered the Statutes therefore made should be observed In the 28 th year of the said Kings Raigne It was at the request of the Commons in parliament for that William Taylebois of South Lime in the County of Lincoln Esq would in the Parliament time have slain Ralph Lord Cromwell one of the Kings Councel in the Pallace of Westminster Enacted that the said William Taylebois should therefore be committed to the Tower of London there to remain one year without bayle baston or Mainprize and that before his delivery he should answer unto the same In the 14 th and 15 th year of the Raign of King Edward the 4 th William Hide a Burgess of Parliament for the Town of Chippenham in Wiltshire being a Prisoner upon a Writ of Capias ad satisfaciendum obtained a Writ out of the Chancery to be delivered with a saving of the right of other men to have Execution after the Parliament ended notwithstanding the Pâ—ecedent of Sir William Thorpe Knight Speaker of the house of Commons in the 18 th year of the Raigne of the Raigne of King Henry the 6 th taken in Execution for a debt of 1000 l. at the suit of Richard Duke of York betwixt the adjournment and recess of that Parliament and could not be released so as a new Speaker was chosen in his place which may well be conjectered to have been so carried by the then overbearing power and influence of that Duke and his party great alliance and pretences to the Crown which that meek and pious King was not able to resist For in the 17 th year of the raigne of King Edward the 4 th at the petition of the Commons in Parliament the King with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal granted that John Atwill a Burgess of the City of Exeter condemned in the Exchequer during the Parliament upon eight several informations at the suit of John Taylor of the same Town should have as many Writs of Supersedeas as he would untill his coming home after the Parliament In the 35 th year of the Raigne of King Henry the 8 th Trewyniard a Burgess of Parliament being imprisoned upon an Utlary in an action of debt upon a Capias ad satisfaciendum was delivered by priviledge of Parliament allowed to be legal by the opinion of the Judges before whom that case of his imprisonment and release was afterwards debated and their reasons as hath been before remembred given for the same with which agreeth the precedent in the case of Edward Smalley a servant of Mr. Hales a member of Parliament taken in Execution in the 18 th year of the Raigne of Queen Elizabeth in the Report whereof made by the Committee of Parliament for his delivery it is said that the said Committee found no precedent for the setting at large any person in arrest but only by writ and that by diverse precedents on Record and perused by the said Committee it appeared that every Knight Citizen and Burgesse of the house of Commons in Parliament which doth require priviledge hath used in that case to take a corporal oath before the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being that the party for whom such writ is prayed came with him to the Parliament was his servant at the the time of the arrest made whereupon Mr Hale was directed by the house of Commons to make an oath before the Lord Keeper as aforesaid and to procure a warrant for a Writ of priviledge for his said servant howbeit the Lords in Parliament did in the Raigne of Queen Elizabeth usually of their own authority deliver their Servants out of Execution if arrested in Parliament time In the 27 th year of her Raigne a Member of the house of Commons having been served with a Writ of Subpaena issuing out of the Chancery and the house signifying to the Lord Keeper that it was against their priviledge he retorned answer that he could not submit to any opinion of the house concerning their priviledges except those priviledges were allowed in Chancery and would not recall the Subpaena With which accordeth Mr. VVilliam Pryn too violent an undertaker in the late times of usurpation to assert their phantosme or feigned soveraignty whereof he was then and since his Majesties happy restoration untill his death a member who having by the keeping of the Records in the Tower of London found the way to a better weighed and more sober consideration and cause enough if he would have well inspected himself and what he had formerly written to retract those many errors which an overhasty reading and writing had hurried him into hath in his animadversions upon Sir Edward Cokes 4 th part of his Institutes declared that the house of Commons in Parliament had untill the later end of the last Century assumed no Jurisdiction to themselves or their Committee of priviledges to punish breaches of priviledges but onely complained thereof to the King or the Lords in Parliament And therefore King James in an answer to a Petition of the House of Commons in Parliament in Anno Dom. 1622 was not in an error when he said that although we cannot allow of the stile calling your priviledges your antient and undoubted rights and inheriiance but could rather have wished that you had said that your priviledges were derived from the grace or permission of our Ancestors and us for most of them were from precedents which shews rather a tolleration then inheritance yet we are pleased to give you our royal assurance that as long as you contain
under His Seal and Teste Me Ipso directed to all His Courts of Justice And are as Bracton saith Formata ad similitudinem Regulae Juris framed by and according to the Rules of Law whiâ—h warranting many of the Proceeding thereof are in the Assize betwixt Wimbish and the Lord Willoughby in Trinity Term in the sixth year of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth said and not denyed to be Law and the Act of the King but not of the Chancellor So as they who shall endeavour to impose upon other men that the King is not by Law presumed to be present in his Court of Kings Bench where the Records do mention the Judgements given therein to be coram Rege before the King as if he were personally present with the Judges of that Court who are assigned to assist Him may as to the Kings Power in matters of Justice and over the Judges and Courts delegated by Him do well to seek a reason which is justly to be feared will never be found why it should be Law or Reason for King Alfred in the discords or ignorance of his Subordinate Judges in the distribution of Justice to hear and determine the Causes Himself or for King Canutus long after to judge the Causes of such as complained unto him when our Bracton doth not at all doubt of it when he saith that the Judges nullam habent Authoritatem sed ab alio i. e. Rege sibi Commissam cum ipse qui delegat non sufficiat per se omnes Causas sive Jurisdictiones terminare they have no Authority but what they are intrusted with by the King who granted it when as he who delegated them is not able or sufficient by himself to hear aad determine all Causes in every Jurisdiction unto which our Register of Writs that Pharmacopeia Director and Magazine of Medicines and Remedies for many a Disease in the Estates and Affairs of the People which Justice Fitz Herbert in his Preface to his Book De Natura Brevium of the Nature of Writs calleth The Principles of the Law and the Foundation whereupon it dependeth and in Plowdens Commentaries is as to many things truly said to be the Foundation of our Laws and so Authentique as Brown Justice in the Case betwixt Willon and the Lord Barkley in the third year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth declared that all Writs were to pursue the Forms in the Register and it was enough to alledge so is the Register will easily assent and all our Books of the Law all the Practice and Usage of our Courts of Justice all our Records Close and Patent Rolls and our Kings hearing and determining of Differences betwixt the Common Law and Ecclesiastical Courts and Jurisdictions and their making of Orders to reconcile the Proceedings of the severall Judges thereof and the like betwixt the Admiralty Court and the Courts of Common Law ordered decided and agreed before King Charles the First and His Privy Council in the ninth year of His Reign the Judges in criminal Matters not seldom attending the King for a Declaration of His Will and Pleasure where a Reprieve Pardon or Stay of Execution shall be necessary will be as so many almost innumerable powerful and cogent Arguments to justifie it And a common and dayly Experience and the Testimony of so many Centuries and Ages past and the Forme used in our Writs of Scire Facias to revive Judgements after a year and a day according to the Statute of Westminster the 2. with the words Et quia volumus ea que in Curia nostra rite acta sunt debite executioni demandari because we would that those things which are rightly done in our Courts should be put in execution c. may bear witness of that Sandy Foundation Sir Edward Coke hath built those his great mistakings upon and those also that the King cannot propria Authoritate Arrest any man upon suspition of Treason or Felony when the Statute made in the third year of the Reign of King Edward the First expresly acknowledgeth that the King may Arrest or cause men to be Arrested as well as His Chief Justice without distinction in ordinary and civil or criminal matters and when by the beforemention'd Opinions of Sir Christopher Wray Lord Chief Justice of the Queens Bench Sir Edmond Anderson Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas and of all the Judges of England delivered under their hands in the Four and thirtieth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth it was acknowledged that She or the Lords of Her Privy Council might do it And in the before recited great Case of the Habeas Corpora in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr there was no question made but that the King might lawfully do it with a cause expressed in the Warrant And many a Nobleman and others hath in several of our Kings Reigns either upon suspition of Treason or Flagranti Crimine in or very near the acting of it or upon great Misdemeanors been Arrested by our Kings and Princes onely Command and sent Prisoners to the Tower of London As the Great Mortimer Earl of March by King Edward the Third the Pompous Cardinal Wolsey and Queen Ann of Bulloin by King Henry the Eighth the Duke of Northumberland by Queen Mary the Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Essex by Queen Elizabeth for Treason Robert Earl of Somerset and his Lady committed for Felony Sir Tho. Overbury for refusing to go Ambassador when he was sent by King James Henry Earl of Oxford for striking up a Great Lords heels in a Solemnity of a great Feast when the French Ambassador was entertained in Westminster Hall for presuming to offer to wash his hands after the King had washed in the Basin which as Lord Great Chamberlain of England he had holden to the King Thomas Earl of Arundel for marrying the Lord Matravers his Son to the Sister of the Duke of Lenox and Richmond without his Licence and Philip Earl of Pembroke and the said Lord Matravers for striking and scuffling with one another in the House of Peers in Parliament and some others by King Charles the First and some by His now Majesty and our Parliaments have many times in some Charges brought against offenders of the Weal Publique petitioned our Kings and Princes to do it and many others have been so committed in the Reigns almost of all our Kings and Princes of which every Age and History of this our Kingdom can give plentiful Examples which we may believe to have been done by good and legal Warrant when in all our many Parliaments and Complaints of the People therein such Arrests and Imprisonments have not been in the number of any of their complained Grievances for otherwise what Power Writ Authority or Warrant of a Judge or Justice of Peace could have seiz'd upon that Powerful Mortimer and taken him in Notingham Castle out of the amorous Embraces of Queen Isabel the
then Kings Mother Or the popular greatly belov'd Duke of Norfolk out of the County of Norfolk And Sir Edward Coke that great Lawyer so deservedly call'd might if he were now again in his house of clay and that Earthly Honor which his great Acquests in the Study and Practice of the Law had gained him do well to inform us that the Report of Husseys the Chief Justice who is by him mistaken and called the Attorney-General to King Henry the Seventh was any more than an Hear-say and nothing of kin to the Case put by the King whereupon they were commanded to assemble in the Exchequer Chamber whether those that had in those tossing and troublesom times been Attainted might sit in Parliament whilst their Attainders were reversing And the Case concerning the King himself whether an Attainder against himself was not void or purged by his taking upon him the Crown of England or that which in that Conference was brought in to that Report impertinently and improperly to what preceded or followed by the Reporter of that Conference was not at the most but some by discourse and not so faithfully related as to mention how farre it was approved or wherein it was gain-sayed by all or any or how many of the Judges it being altogether unlikely that if Hussey had been then the Kings Attorney-General he would have cast in amongst those Reverend Judges such an illegal and unwarrantable Hear-say of an opinion of the Lord Chief Justice Markham in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth whom that King as our Annalist Stow recordeth displaced for condemning Sir Thomas Cooke an Alderman of London for Treason when it was but Misprision said unto that King That the King cannot Arrest a man upon suspition of Treason or Felony because if he should do wrong the Party cannot have an Action against the King without a bestowing some Confutation Reason or Arguments against it which the Reporter was pleased to silence And was so weak and little to be believ'd an Opinion as the practice of all the Ages since have as well as the Times preceding disallowed and contradicted it and whether such an Opinion can be warranted by any Law or Act of Parliament And whether the King may not take any Cause or Action out of any of His Courts of Justice or Equity and give Judgment thereupon and upon what Law Reason or Ground it is not to be done For if the Answer which Sir Edward Coke made to what the King alledged That the Law was grounded upon Reason and that he and others had reason as well as others That true it was God had endued His Majesty with excellent science but His Majesty was not learned in the Laws of England and Causes which concern the Life and Inheritance or Goods of his Subjects which are not to be decided by natural Reason and Judgment of Law which Judgment requires long study and experience And when the King was therewith greatly offended and replyed That he should then be under the Law which was Treason to be said answered that Bracton saith That Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo Lege That a King ought not to be under man but God and the Law shall be compared with the Opinion of Dyâ—r Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas and the Judges of that Court in the Case betwixt Greâ—don and the Bishop of Lincoln and the Dean and Chapter of Worcester upon a Demurrer in a Quare Impedit in the eighteenth and nineteenth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth reported by Mr. Edmond Plowden as great and learned a Lawyer as that Age afforded and one whom Sir Edward Coke doth acknowledge to be no less did allow and were of opinion That the King cannot be held to be ignorant of the Law because He is the Head of the Law and ignorance of the Law cannot be allowed in the King there will be as little cause as reason to dote upon such Conclusions especially when the erronious Mis-application and evil Interpretation of that alledged out of Bracton will be obvious to any that shall examine the very place cited that his meaning was that where he said that the King was sub Deo Lege under God and the Law it was that he was onely non uti potentia sed judicio ratione And in other places of his Book speaking who primo principaliter possit debeat judicare who first and principally shall and may judge saith Et sciendum quod ipse Rex non alius si solus ad hoc sufficere possit cum ad hoc per virtutem Sacramenti teneatur astrictus And it is to be understood that the King Himself and none other if he alone can be able is to do it seeing He is thereunto obliged by His Oath Ea vero quae Jurisdicâ—ionis sunt Pacis ea quae sunt Justiciae Paci annexa ad nullum pertinent nisi ad Coronam Dignitatem Regiam nec a Corona seperari poterint cum faciant ipsam Coronam for that which belongeth to his Jurisdiction and that which belongeth to Justice and the Peace of the Kingdom doth belong to none but the Crown and Dignity of the King nor can be separated from the Crown when it makes the Crown so as those who should acknowledge the strength and clearness of a Confutation in that which hath been already and may be said against those Doctrines of Sir Edward Coke may do well to give no entertainment unto those his Opinions which nulla ratione nulla authoritate vel ullo solido fundamento by no reason authority or foundation can be maintained but to endeavor rather to satisfie the world and men of law and reason whether a Soveraign Prince who as Bracton saith habet omnia Jura sua in manu suâ— quae pertinent ad Regni gubernaculum habet etiam Justiciam Judiciam quae sunt Jurisdictiones ut ex Jurisdictione sua sicut Dei Minister Vicarius hath all the Rights in his hand which appertaineth to the Government of the Kingdom which are Jurisdictions and as His Jurisdiction belongeth unto Him as He is Gods Vicar and Minister is in case of Suspition of Treason or Felony where His ever-waking Intelligence and careful Circumspections to keep Himself and People in safety shall give Him an Alarm of some Sedition Rebellion or Insurrection and put on His Care and Diligence to a timely Endeavor to crush or spoil some Cockatrice Eggs busily hatching to send to His Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings Bench or in his absence out of the Term some Justice of Peace for a Warrant to Arrest or Apprehend the party offending or suspected which our Laws and reasonable Customs of England did never yet see or approve and when such offenders are to be seized as secretly as suddenly Or what Law History or Record did ever make mention of so unusual undecent
libertatis privilegij praedictorum laesionem manifestam to the prejudice of the rights of the Crown and violation of the liberty and priviledge aforesaid hujusmodi vijs modis quibus poterint praecanere libertatem privilegia sua praedicta manu tenere cupientes And that they were desirous by all the ways and means they could to hinder such doings so prejudicial unto them and were resolved to maintain the Liberties and Priviledges of the Crown And not be able to protect his Houshold and domestick Servants in whose daily service and continual attendance both our Kings and their Subjects were more concerned than they could be by any the service or attendance of the Officers or Clerks in the Court of Chancery Which the Lords in Parliament did so well understand to be a Right inherent and due unto Royal Majesty as in the three and fortieth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth they did in the Case of William Huggen one of the Queens Servants arrested upon an Execution send the Gentleman-Usher attending upon their House to the Prison of the Fleet to bring him before them and upon view of Precedents of some of their own Servants delivered though none of any the Kings or Queens did in conformity to the reason thereof cause the Plaintiff upon the Defendants promise to pay him to release him and the Under-Sheriff being committed to the Fleet was three days after upon his Petition discharged And in the first year of the Reign of King James The Earl of Suffolk Lord Chamberlain of the Kings House did procure Nicholas Reading one of his Majesties Servants arrested by an Execution at the Suit of Sir Edward Hales to be brought before the Lords in Parliament by a Writ of Habeas Corpus and so by the Plaintiffs consent released the Order mentioning that such an Arrest was contrary to the honor and priviledge of that Court. Or that not only the Judges of the superior Courts the Justices of Peace can as they have done it antiently and commonly imprison men for Contempts of them or their written Orders or verbal Commands without which they power could not Tueri Jurisdictionem uphold that Authority which the King had given them but the Constables of every Parish in London whose Offices and Authority at the first were saith the judicious and learned Lambard but as the fingers to the hands or body of the Constable of England a great Officer of the King and his Crown can in their Night-watches command better men than themselves to the Compters or London Prisons there to lodge the remainder of the night among the debauched or unruly sort of people calld Rats or Night-walkers but for angring his worship or not believing that he is a Prince of the Night the Kings Image and none of the smaller parcels of mortality and shall have so much connivence at his no seldom committed Follies as no other Habeas Corpus shall be granted to the injured person thn a submissive paying of his Fees of imprisonment and procuring himself as well as he can to be discharged by the greater discretion of the Lord Mayor or an Alderman before whom he is the next morning to be brought with his not to be discerned Fault or offences and if he should seek afterwards to be recompenced for such an affront is to expect as little favour as may be for himself and as much as may be for his adversary And that the King under whose Power and Authority they acted should not be able by his own immediate command or the Warrant of some of the great Officers of his Crown or Houshold to punish by imprisonment any contempts committed against himself and his soveraign power by the arresting of his domestick and houshold Servants without Licence who are neare unto his person and imployed in his hourly or daily service or attendance or that his power and Authority should not be efficacious or valid in his own case or immediate concernment and should be valid and sufficient to punish such as either contemned or abused his Justices and Servants extraordinary who are more remote from his person in the administration of his Justice As when Eustace de Parles and his brother were by King Edward the first in the one and twentieth year of his Reign committed to the Tower of London for abusing and striking in Westminster Hall William de Bereford one of his Justices of his Court of Common-Pleas And King Edward the third by his Justices and Authority punished the Bayliffs of Ipswich by the Forfeiture and Loss of their places seised the Liberties of the Town and delivered the Custody thereof to another during the Kings pleasure and made the Bayliffs of the Town to deliver in Court their Staves of Office for that they had suffered an unruly multitude to feast and revel with certain Malefactors condemned by the Justices of Assize and after their departure made a Mock game of them in sitting upon the Tribunal and Fining them and their Clerks Or that any should think it reasonable or no disservice of the King or his not to be incumbred Affairs to arrest any of his Houshold Servants without a Licence first obtained And shall at the same time decry or declaim against the Arresting of a Judge sitting in his delegated Court of Justice or travelling in the Circuit by and under the Kings Commission at the Suit of any private person or the Arresting and Imprisonment of an Admiral or Vice-Admiral going to Sea or a Commander or Governor of a Castle Fort or Garison upon the like occasion and think it reasonable that the King in reference to the Weal-publique in those his affairs and concernments should by priviledge protect and shelter them A right understanding whereof and of that which hath been before alleaged and the reasons supporting those Judgments of the not ignorant or unworthy but very learned grave and upright Judges in those former Ages and Times and of the Duties Honor and Respects which were and ought to be paid to the Soveraignty just and necessary means of Government assented unto by our Lawes and reasonable Customs of England and in praxi observantia junioris Aevi in the practise and course of Law in the succeeding Ages not denied by any positive or well interpreted Law may grant a Proeibition and give a Checque or Restraint to those opinions so of late hatch'd and hug'd against too many of the Actions of Authority in order to Government and the Weal-publique the necessity of preventing Evils before they happen or diverting abating or lessening them after they are happened and invite them to forsake their overmuch adoration of Sir Edware Cokes aforesaid Errors and believe Sir Thomas Ridley a Doctor of the civil Lawes and no stranger to our Common-Lawes who no longer ago than the beginning of the Reign of King James in his Book intituled A view of the Civil Ecclâ—siastical and Temporal
servitio suo continuo et quo casu respondebit vel indefensus remanebit et pro convicto habebitur quia per servitium Regis essoniari poterit alibi ubique in infinitum for that he is of the Kings Houshold and continually in his service and in that case must answer or not defending himself will be convicted when as he might otherwise in any other Court or Place have Essoined or excused himself as often as he pleased et servitium Regis nulli debet esse damnosum nec injuriosum being the very words of Bracton beforementioned and the Kings Service ought not to be a wrong or damage unto any And is notwithstanding of opinion that a defendant may be by his Essoin excused ex causâ necessariâ et utili aut causâ reipublicae for a necessary cause or occasion and where the good of the Commonwealth is concerned as surely it must be understood not to be in the safety well being and daily attendance upon the Person of the King as much or very neer the instance or case by him there put Si eat cum Rege in exercitu if he go in the Army with the King as all King Davids Servants did when he marched against his rebellious Son Absolom and as most or very many of the Servants of Kings and Princes do use to be ad patriae defensionem cùm ad hoc teneatur vel per praeceptum Regis when he goeth with the King to War for the defence of his Countrey being obleiged thereunto by the Tenure of his Lands or the Kings Commandement And having said that Pleas of Debt do belong unto the Court of Common Pleas concludes Sunt tamen causae speciales quae alibi terminantur ex permissione Principis per querelam coram senescallo Aulae ut in Scaccario cum causa fuerit Regi necessaria videlicet ne Ministri sui de Scaccario ab obsequio suo continuo quicquam impediantur There are notwithstanding some Causes which by the leave or good pleasure of the Prince are by Plaint to be determined before the Steward of the Houshold as also in the Exchequer when it shall concern the King that his Officers or Servants be not in their Business hindred So as then and for some time after it was not likely that any Inroads should be made upon that just and rational Priviledge of the Kings Servants For howsoever that even in those more frugal and thrifty days some of the Kings Menial and Houshold Servants might not then be so beforehand as it is now termed or so far from being indebted but that some Moneys or Debts might be demanded of them or there might be some occasion of Complaints or Actions to be brought against them Yet there appears not any probability or foundation for it that the Liberties and Priviledges of the Kings Servants were for many years after the twenty eighth year of the Reign of King Edward the First which limited all Actions before the Steward and Marshal of the Kings House to such Contracts and Actions only as were or should be made betwixt one of the Kings Servants with any other of his Servants disturbed or unsecured or that the Kings Servants were for many years after molested or troubled with the severe and disgraceful way of Imprisonments now used when the Chancellors and the Justices of the Kings Bench were by an Act of Parliament in the same year enjoyned to attend the King and his Court and to be there à latere tanquam famulantes always neer him and as Domestiques saith the Learned Sir Henry Spelman so that as the words of that Statute are the King might have at all times neer unto him some that be learned in the Laws which be able duely to order all such matters as shall come unto the Court at all times when need shall require Which the Chancellor and in all lâ—kelihood the Chief Justice did not neglect for saith Sir Henry Spelman Such Causes as nulli constitutorum Tribunalium rite competerent ad Palatium seu oraculum Regni were not limited to the determination or judgment of other Tribunals came to the Kings Palace as to the Oracle of the Kingdom and yet then the King was not without his more than one Attorneys or Procurators who were men learned in the Law And King Edward the third was so unwilling that his Servants should be drawn before other Tribunals as by a Statute made in the fifth year of his Reign where it was ordained That in Inquests to be taken in the Kings House before the Steward and Marshal that they should be taken by men of the County thereabouts to avoid it may be partiality and not by men of the Kings House there is an Exception of Contracts Covenants and Trespasses made by men of the Kings House of the one part and the other and that in the same House And the Chancellors of England were in former times so or for the most part Resident in the Kings Court and accounted as a part of his Family as until the making of the Act of Parliament in the 36 year of the Reign of King Edward the Third which did restrain the Pourveyance to the Kings and Queens Houses only and did forbid it to be made for other Lords and Ladies of the Realm the King did use to send his Writs to the Sheriffs of the Counties where they had occasion to make any Pourveyance for the Chancellor his Officers and Clerks some whereof as their Clerici de primâ formâ now called the Masters of Cbancery were ad Robas had and yet have an yearly allowance for their Robes or Liveries commanding them to be assistant to their Pourveyors the Chancery Clerks being in the 18th year of that Kings Reign so accompted to be a part of his Servants and Family as a Complaint or Petition being exhibited in Parliament by all the Clerks of the Chancery That whereas the Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England ought to have cognisance of all Pleas and Trespasses done unto or by any of the Clerks of the Chancery Thomas de Kislingbury Draper of London had forged the best word they would then bestow upon a Writ or Action not commenced as it ought to be by Original Writ issuing out of the Chancery a Bill of Trespass against Gilbert de Chishull one of the Clerks of the Chancery whereby to take away from the King and his Chancellor the Cognisance of the said Action which belonged unto them contre Common Ley de la Terre against the Common Law of the Land did by a Serjeant of the Mace in London arrest and imprison him in the House of John de Aylesham one of the Sheriffs of London and although the King sent a Supersedeas commanding the Plaintiff to surcease his prosecution there and that he prosecute the said Gilbert de Chyshull in Chancery if he have any cause of Action against him the Sheriffs of London
ended in the Cardinals turning to Mr. Welch and saying Well there is no more to do I trow you are one of the Kings Privy Chamber your Name is Mr. Welch I am contented to yield unto you but not unto the Earl without I see his Commission for you are a sufficient Commissioner in this behalf being one of the Kings Privy Chamber And in the 21 year of the Reign of that King such a care was taken to keep not only the Chaplains of the King Queen Prince and Princess or any of the Kings or Queens Children or Sisters but of the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Chamberlain Steward Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings Houshold from any prejudice whilst they attended in their Honourable Housholds and exempt them from the Penalty of Ten Pounds a Month whilst they should not be resident at their Benefices as they did by an especial Exception provide for their Indempnity therein And in the same year and Parliament the Chancellor Treasurer of England and the Lord President of the Kings Council are said to be attendant upon the Kings most Honourable Person And in the 24 year of his Reign some of his Servants having been impannelled and retorned upon Juries he signified his dislike of the same unto the Justices of the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas in these words Trusty and Right-well-beloved We greet you well Whereas we understand that all manner of your Officers and Clerks of both our Benches be in such wise priviledged by an ancient Custom that they be always excepted out of all manner of Impannels We considering that the Hedd Officers and Clerks of our Houshold by reason of the daily Business in our Service have been semblably excepted in time passed unto now of late that some of them have been retorned in Impannels otherwise then heretofore hath been accustomed We will and command you That in case any Hedd Officer or Clerk of our Houshold shall hereafter fortune to be put in any Impannel either by the Sheriff of our Còunty of Kent or by any Sheriff of any County within this our Realm for to be retorned before you without our special Commandment in that behalf ye upon knowledge thereof cause him or them so impannelled to be discharged out of the said Impannel and other sufficient Persons to be admitted in their place and that you fail not this to do from time to time as often as the case shall require as ye tender our pleasure Yeoven under our Signet at our Manor of Richmont the fourth day of October in the twenty fourth year of our Reign To our Trusty and Well-beloved the Chief Justices of both our Benches and to all other their fellows Justices of the same In the Act of Parliament made in the twenty fifth year of his Reign against excess of Apparel there was a Proviso That all Officers and Servants waiting and attending upon the King Queen or Princess daily yearly or quarterly in their Housholds or being in their Checque Roll may by the Licence of the King use or wear Apparel on their Bodies Horses Mules c. according to such Licence And not only King Henry the Eighth but his three Estates the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament in the 31 year of his Reign did so much attribute to the Kings Servants in Ordinary and the Honour of their Imployments as to grant by Act of Parliament That the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Lord President of the Kings Council Lord Privy Seal the Great Chamberlain Constable Marshal and Admiral of England Grand Master or Steward of the Kings most Honourable Houshold and Chamberlain should in Parliament Star-Chamber and all other Assemblies which was in no Kings Reign before allowed sit and be pláced above all Dukes except such as should happen to be the Kings Sons Brothers Vncles Nephews or Brothers or Sisters Sons That the Lord Privy Seal should sit atd be placed above the Great Chamberlain Constable Marshal and Lord Admiral of England Grand Master or Lord Steward and the Kings Chamberlain and that the Kings Chief Secretary if he be of the Degree of a Baron should in Parliament and all other Assemblies sit and be placed before and above all other Barons and if he be a Bishop above all other Bishops not having any of the Offices above-mentioned Precedency amongst the English Nobility being heretofore so highly valued and esteemed as it was not seldom very much insisted upon And so as in the Reign of King Henry the sixth it was earnestly claimed and controverted betwixt John Duke of Norfolk and Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and in divers other Kings Reigns greatly contended for and stickled betwixt some of the Great Nobility The Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal of England and the Chamberlain of the Kings House and the Steward thereof as appeareth by their Subscriptions as Witnesses unto sundry Charters of our former and ancient Kings not having been before allowed so great a Precedency as that Act of Parliament gave them or as that high Place Trust and Office of Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England according to the Custom and Usage of former Ages in all or the most of the neighbour Kingdoms and Monarchies have justly merited who in the times of the ancient Emperors of Rome were as Gutherius noteth stiled the Quaestores Palatii and had in Vlpian's time who flourished in the Reign of Alexander Severus the Emperor antiquissimam originem an honourable and long-before original and so necessary in the then Administration of Justice as the Emperor Justinian that great Legislator and Compiler of Laws ordained That Divinae Jussiones Subscriptionem haberent gloriosissimi Quaestoris nec emissae aliter a Judicibus reciperentur quà m si subnotatae fuerint à Quaestore Palatii That the Imperial Mandates should be subscribed by the Chancellor who was sometimes stiled Justitiae Custos vox Legum Concilii Regalis particeps the Keeper or Repository of Justice the voice or mouth of the Laws and one of the Privy Council and those Mandates being sent not much unlike the Original Writs issuing out of our High Court of Chancery w th were then also called Breves were not to be received by the Judges unless they were signed by the Quaestor Palatii or Chancellor but subscribed their Names as Witnesses to Charters after Bishops Abbots and Barons as amongst many other instances may be given in that of Robert Parning Chancellor and of Randolf de Stafford Steward of the Houshold in the seventeenth year of the Reign of King Edward the third By a Statute made in the thirty second of the Reign of King Henry the eighth the Parliament did not think it unreasonable that there should be a Great Master of the Kings House and have all the Authority that the Lord Steward had By a Statute made in the thirty third year
of his Reign for the punishment of such as committed Murder or Man-slaughter in the Kings Court or did strike any man there whereby Bloodshed ensued the Trial of such Offenders was not thought fit to be within the Cognisance or Jurisdiction of any of the Courts of Westminster-hall or of any Court inferior unto them but ordained to be by a Jury of 12 of the Yeomen Officers of the Kings Houshold before the Lord Steward or in his absence before the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings Houshold And the Parliament in the first year of the Reign of Queen Mary repealing the aforesaid Act of the 32 year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth did touching the Great Master of the Kings House notwithstanding understand it to be reasonable that the Name Office and Authority of the Lord Steward should be again established And so little the Priviledge of the Kings Servants in Ordinary seemed to be a Grievance or illegal to be first complained of to the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold which Honourable Office and Place about the King appears to have been before that Great Office of Chamberlain of England by the mention of Hugoline Chamberlain to King Edward the Confessor and the Subscription of Ralph Fitz Stephen as a Witness to a Charter of King Henry the Second granted unto the Abby of Shirburn before they were to be subjected to Arrests or Imprisonments for Debt and other Personal Actions before Execution or Judgment had against them upon their appearance and not claiming or pleading their Priviledge for then or in such a case they have not sometimes been priviledged although the cause and reason of their Priviledge was as much after Judgement and Execution as before which a submission to the Jurisdiction of another Court and not claiming their Priviledge should not prejudice or take away no more than it doth in the Case of Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and their Servants who by their Priviledge of Parliament are not to be disturbed with Executions or any manner of Process before and after Judgment as Queen Mary did in a Case depending in the Court of Common Pleas betwixt Huggard Plaintiff and Sir Thomas Knivet Defendant direct her Writ to the Justices of that Court which was but as one of the old and legal Writs of Protection or something more especial certifying them That the said Sir Thomas Knivet was by her command in her Service beyond the Seas and had been Essoined and therefore commanded them That at the time appointed by the said Essoin and day given for his appearance he should not have any default entred against him or be in any thing prejudiced which the Judges were so far from disallowing as having before searched and finding but few and that before-mentioned Privy Seal in the 35 year of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth in the Case of the Kings Yeoman of the Buttery being held by them to be insufficient but declared not whether in substance or Form howsoever there may be some probability that it was allowed by the entring of it upon Record they did as the Lord Chief Justice Dier hath reported it advise and assist in the penning and framing of the Writ for Sir Thomas Knivet whereby to make it the more legal Queen Elizabeth who was as tender of her Peoples Liberties as of her own yet was upon some occasion heard to say That he that abused her Porter at the Gate of her House or Palace abused her did cause a Messenger of her Chamber to be sent unto a Defendant in the Court of Requests commanding him in her Name not to vex sue or trouble the Complainant but suffer him to come and go freely unto that Court until such time as other Order be by the Council of the said Court taken therein And in the second year of her Reign an Injunction was awarded to the Defendant commanding him to permit the Complainant to follow his Suit in that Court without Arrest upon pain of one hundred pounds In the same year Sir Nicholas Bacon that great and well-experienced Lawyer and Statesman Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and a man highly and deservedly valued both of Prince and People did in the Case between Philip Manwaring Complainant Henry Smallwood and others Defendants so well understand the aforesaid Priviledges of the Kings Servants to be just and legal as upon a Bill exhibited in Chancery by the Plaintiff to stay a Suit in the Marches of Wales he ordered That if the Complainant should not by a day limited bring a Certificate from the Officets of the Queens House or otherwise whereby the Court might credibly understand that his Attendance in the Queens Service was necessary that Cause should be determined in the Marches of Wales In the eighth year of her Reign Thomas Thurland Clerk of the Queens Closet being Plaintiff in the Court of Requests against William Whiteacres and Ralf Dey Defendants an Order was made That whereas the Complainant was committed to the Fleet by the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas upon an Execution of 600 l. the Debt being only 300 l. it hath been given this Curt to understand by divers of the Queens Highness most Honourable Privy Council that Her Majesties pleasure is to have and use the present and speedy Travel of the said Thomas Thurland in and about divers of Her Highness weighty affairs in sundry places of England and Wales for and about the Mineral Causes there to the very likely Commodity and benefit of Her Majesty and all her Subjects It is therefore Ordered and Decreed by Her Majesties Council of this Court that the said Thomas Thurland shall and may with his Keeper appointed by the Warden of the Fleet Travel into any part of the said Realm about the affairs aforesaid without the disturbance Let or Interruption of the said Defendants And to that purpose an Injunction is granted against the said Defendants their Attornies and Solicitors upon pain of one Thousand pounds and commanded that neither they nor any of them shall vex sue trouble molest or implead the said Complainant or Richard Tirrel Esq Warden of the Fleet or any other person whatsoever for the Travelling or departing of the said Thomas Thurland from the said Prison of the Fleete with his Keeper appointed as aforesaid from the day of the making of this Decree until the feast of all Saints next ensuing if the said Complainant so long shall have cause to attend about the said affairs And many Cases might be instanced where that great Supporter of Monarchy Regality and Honour in Her best of Governments would not suffer the Just Priviledges of Her Court and Servants to be violated but would be sure severely to punish the Contradictors and Infringers of them About the eighteenth year of her Raign the Earl of Leicester Master of the Horse unto that Excellent Queen and great preserver of Her Peoples
be Attached Et hinc est quòd vulgaritèr dicitur quòd servientes Regis sunt Pares comitibus and from hence it is saith Fleta that it is Commonly said that the Kings Servants are in that Respect Peers of the Earls and are upon Actions or Complaints of Debt or other personal Actions in the awarding of process in the Court appropriate to the Kings House or Palace to enjoy the like Summons or respectful Usage But if there had been no such Custom or Priviledge in the former ages there is now and hath been for some years last past a greater necessity and reason for it then ever when any of the Kings Servants being made a Defendant by feigned and fictitious Actions or Writs called Bills of Middlesex or Latitats Issuing out of the Court of Kings Bench in placito transgressionis upon a supposed Action of Trespass as great as the Plaintiffs malice or designed oppression to ruine and lay unjust Actions upon him can invent and a late imaginary supposed custom with an ac etiam or supposition of an Action of One thousand or ten or twenty thousand pounds added in the same Writ or Action to be afterwards viz. when the Plaintiff pleaseth exhibited against him may be cast into Prison and overwhelmed with such Complainants pretended Actions his friends so affrightned as they dare not bail him if they were able his service lost and his livelihood under his Sovereign and gracious Master taken away from him and our Kings of England by such Plaintiffs and their untruly suggested Actions reduced to as manifest dangers by Arresting or taking away their Guards or Attendants from them when he shall go or ride abroad or be recreating himself in hunting or other disports as King James was by the wicked Earl Gowries Trayterous purposes to Murder Him by sending His Servanrs the wrong way and telling them that the King was gone before another way and when such Illegal and unwarrantable Writs may have neither cause or evidence or may be for an inconsiderable or small summe of Money or perhaps none at all due unto them And have been of late such Midwives to wicked Designs and Contrivances as a Married Woman hath been by the confederacy of her Husband and the Arresting and Imprisoning her Servants by such Counterfeit Actions enforced to leavy a fine whereby to pass away the Inheritance of her Lands of a great yearly value which was after Reversed by Act of Parliament and a Gentlewomans house in S. Martins Lane in the fields neer London Robbed by Arresting of the Mistress of the House and those that were in it by such Bills of Middlesex for which the Cheater that contrived it was not long after deservedly hanged And surely such a priviledge claimed by the Kings Servants in Ordinary needs not be so quarrelled at when in the great Case which happened in Anno Dom. 1627 being the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr upon Habeas Corpora's brought by four or five Gentlemen who were Imprisoned per speciale mandatum Domini Regis by the Kings Special Command signified under the hands of eighteen Privy Councellors for not lending money to the Publique necessities when they were very able to do it concerning the Arrest or Imprisonment of any of the Freeborn People of England by the Kings Warrant or Command without a cause Expressed Whereby the Judges upon a Habeas Corpus might enquire and Judge of the cause of such Imprisonment and give any of his Subjects their Libertys upon Bail to Answer the Action where the Law allowed it the many and elaborate Arguments made on those Gentlemens behalf in the Court of Kings Bench by several able Lawyers amongst which was that skilful Diver into our Common Laws Antiquities Records and Presidents the Eminently Learned Mr. Noy who except the Great and Learned Selden brought as Great an Ingeny and Intellect to the study of them and a more solid and Penetrating wit and Judgment then any or many an age hath yet produced could not keep the said Gentlemen from being remanded back to the Prisons from whence they came or hinder the opinion of the Judges of that Court amongst which was the Right Learned Justice Doddridge upon view of the President in the case of Edward Page in the seventh year of King Henry the eighth committed to the Marshalsea by the Lord Steward of the Kings House who being afterwards upon an Habeas Corpus brought before the Justices of the Kings Bench was remanded and the like in the Case of James Desmeisters committed to the Marshalsea of the Kings Houshold per concilium Domini Regis by the Kings Privy Council that those Gentlemen could not be Bailed and that by some Pesidents in many Cases where men have been Committed by the Kings Command when they have been discharged by that Court it hath been upon the Kings pleasure signified by His Attorney General or otherwise that which Sir Robert Heath Knight the Kings Attorney General then alleaged for the King in his Argument in that Case not being denied to be Law or presidented either by the Judges or the Council on the other side that multitudes of Presidents might be shewen wherein men Imprisoned for contempts of Decrees in the Courts of Chancery or Requests Courts of Exchequer and High Commission or by the Corporations or Companies of Trade in their Domineering By-laws or Ordinances were not bailed upon their Habeas Corpora's and that in the Case betwixt the Bakers of London where they Fined and Committed men to Prison for not paying of it and the like not seldom done by the Corporations and Companies of Trades in London and the lesser sort of them as of the Watermâ—n c. Thomas Hennings and Litle Page being Imprisoned in 11 Jacobi Regis when they brought their Habeas Corpora and the cause being shewen to be by reason of an Ordinance or Constitution of the Lord Mayor of London the Prisoners were sent back to abide his Order in which grand Case of the Habeas Corpora that Pious and just King did not as Oliver that Canker of our English Laws and Liberties did in the Case of Mr. Cony the Merchant Imprison or Terrifie the Lawyers which argued for them but in the Expectation and hopes of a better effect then afterwards hapned upon it gave them as much Time and Liberty of Search and Arguments against His Royal Prerogative in that particular as they could desire and those very Justices of the Kings Bench being in the next year after called before a Committee of Lords and Commons in Parliament to declare their opinions concerning those proceedings And asserting their opinions Justice Whitlocke being one of the said Judges denied that there was any Judgment therein given whereby either the Kings Prerogative might be enlarged or the right of the Subject Trenched upon that if they had delivered them presently it must have been because the King did not shew cause wherein they should have
voluntatem illius qui debet domum vel curiam or by doing any thing saith an old Manuscript of Coxford Abby or Monastery which is against the will of the owner of the House or Court which King Henry the first in his Laws de Jure Regis concerning some particulars of his Prerogative and Regality did number amongst the rest and accompt to belong unto him and his Successors and in the perclose of that Law which in some Copies is mentioned to be made assensu Baronum Regni Angliae by the consent of the Barons of England it is said haec sunt Dominica placita Regis nec pertinent vicecomitibus apparitoribus vel ministris ejus sine diffinitis praelocutionibus in forma sua these are the Rights and Jurisdictions belonging to the King in his Demesne and do not belong to any Sheriffs Apparitors or their Bayliffs unless especially granted unto them By which and the HVSFASTENE an old course and custom amongst the Saxons which ordained that every house with their FOLGHERES Followers or Servants should be in Franco Plegio in some Franke pleg or Liberty where by the Courts held in those places or Justice there to be had any controversies betwixt them and others or wrongs done by or unto them might be determined the rule of the Civil Law which in many of the Customs or Municipal Laws of this and other Nations was the guide or Pole star which conducted them being that actio sequitur forum rei the Action to which our Common Laws have ever since in their Real and other actions much agreed is to be tryed in the Court where the person or lands of the party defendant are that before recited law of K. Edw. the Confessor which amongst other his highly valued Laws Enacted that Arch-bishops Bishops Earls Barons and all that had Soc a liberty of distributive Justice in their Lands or Territories and Sac a power to fine or punish such as were found guilty either by complaining without a cause or proved to have done wrong to another which gave or confirmed many a liberty or set the example of the succeeding Kings gratifying many of their Subjects with the like in making them tanquam Reguli little Princes within their own Estates or Dominions should have suas Curias Consuetudines their Courts and liberties in their view of Frank Pleg Court Leets and Court Barons and should have under their Jurisdiction etiam milites suos proprios servientes such as served them in wars or held of them by the service thereof or were their domestick or houshold servants Item isti suos Armigeros alios sibi servientes and the Esquires and servants likewise of their servants saith Bracton expounding that Law of King Edward the Confessor the King certainly should not be denied his own Franchise view of Frank-Pleg or jurisdiction to do Justice where either his service or servants were concerned or at least to be complained unto before any violent course of Law should be taken in other Courts against them for otherwise if the King should not have always had such a franchise view of his Frank Pleg or Laws or Customs Hospitii sui as Fleta terms them of his Royal House or Palace there would have been some vestigia foot steps or track to be found either in the Antient Monuments and Memorials of our Laws or of those of later ages or of some other time That the King had been an immediate or single Complainant by way of Action for any abuses only offered to his servants or contempts to his person or Royal Authority which by a long most just and necessary prescription as far as time with his Iron teeth hath left us any remembrances was always left and reserved to the authority and Jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberberlain of the Kings House and the Kings other great Officers who by the Messengers of the Kings Chamber who in such particulars have been as the Lictores Sergeants or Bayliffs pro ista vice upon such occasions to arrest and bring them to the Justice of the King in his Royal Court or Palace and must needs be as lawful or a great deal more in his own particular immediate concernment as it is for the Lord Keeper of the great seal of England or Lord Chancellor to direct the Kings Serjeant at Arms allowed to attend that great and illustrious Officer and Superintendent of the Chancery by himself or his Deputy to arrest and take into his chargeable custody the person of any that shall have committed any grand or reiterated contempt against the process orders or decrees of that honourable Court or for that or the Court of Common-pleas to make the Warden of the Fleets men or the Virgers or Tipstaves attending upon the said Courts or for the Courts of Kings Bench or Exchequer to make the Marshals or Tipstaves thereof to be the Lictores or Messengers of their punishments and displeasure or as the house of Peers in Parliament do make use of the Kings Usher of the black rod and the house of Commons in Parliament of the Kings Serjeant at Arms nor could it have been likely that the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings house who in the Reigns of our Kings Edward the first second or third and probably by foregoing and elder constitutions did in the absence of the Lord Chief Justice of England vicem gerere execute in the Kings Court as Fleta tells us the Office or place of the said Lord Chief Justice should not retain in the Government of the Kings Servants and Houshold so much power as might protect them from injuries or their Royal Master from contempts or neglects of Duties or respects to his person Palace or servants for who that hath not bid defiance to his own Intellect as well as the wisdom of former ages can pretend any shew or colour of Reason that the King should want the power or authority to do as the late blessed Martyr King Charles the first did in the apprehension of certain Watermen in the year 1632. and committing them to Bridewell for refusing to carry the French Ambassador by Water upon the complaint of the Kings Master of the Barge in the year 1634. for the apprehension of William Hockley a Hackney-Coachman for refusing to wait upon the French Embassador or of John Philpots Post-master of Rochester for dis-respects to Monsieur St. German the French Embassador or in the year 1636. for the arrest of John Clifford of Chelsey upon the Complaint of the Spanish Embassador or to cause one Robert Armstrong to be taken into custody by one of his Messengers in the year 1639. for arresting the Post-Master of St. Albans who it may be for ought the offender then knew was bringing some Packet or Letters to the King or his Lords of the Councel for the discovery of some impending dangers which would need as sudden a prevention as the Gunpowder once intended and near atchieved Treason or to
Regis admittebantur and by an Ordinance made by the said King the cognisance of all personal actions commenced by any of the Kings Servants did appertain to the said Master of the houshold who claimed likewise the Trial of all Criminal matters committed in the Kings House Philip King of France called the Long in the year 1317. which was about the 10 th year of the Raign of our King Edward the second did command that Taxes or Assessments taken from three of his servants should be restored unto them which was consented unto by his Parliament and by a decree in Parliament the next year after it was ordained that Omnes Domestici Regis administri pronunciantur immunes ab omni commeatuum vectigalibus quos ad necessitatem usum suum apportari curant all the Kings houshold servants should not pay any Taxes for the provisions which they bought or provided for their necessary uses or occasions In a Decree of that Parliament made in the Raign of their King Charles the 5 th called Charls the wise in the cause of Silvester Cornelius the Kings Almoner in the year 1367. which was about the 41 th year of the Raign of our King Edward the 3. it was adjudged that Domestici officiarii immunitate gauderent a vectigalibus the Kings houshold servants should be freed from Taxes By an Edict made by K. Charles the 6. of France ratified by Parliament in the year 1408. which was about the 5. year of the Raign of our K. Henry the 5 th It was ordained Vt qui ministri Regis viginti Annos aut amplius ministraverint vacantes a ministerio stipendia tamen habeant that those which had served the King 20 years or more should though they left their service have their wages continued Immunitas ab indictionibus subsidiariis omnibus attributa domesticis Regum officiis de praediorum suorum fructibus cum approbatione Parliamenti a privilege freedom was granted by the aforesaid King Charls the 6. from all subsidies to be charg'd upon any of the Kings houshold Servants by allowance of Parliament in the year 1411. which was in or about the 8 th year of our King Henry the 5 th By a Letter of Lewis the 11 th who raigned in France in the time of our King Edward the 4 th sent to the Parliament and Registred therein that King required ut primo loco suorum officialium causas judicet nisi contendentium sit ipsius aut Reginae domesticus in quo casu se moveri jubet ut exponat de eo voluntatem suam that in the first place they should hear and determine the causes of their own Officers unless one of the parties should be the King or Queens servant in ordinary and in such a Case commands that he be first moved and his pleasure thereupon declared Francis the first King of France in Anno 1525. which was about the 16 th year of our King Henry the 8 th sent his Declaration to that Parliament wherein he ordained that his Mothers houshold servants should enjoy the like privileges as his Officers and servants did and another Declaration to that Parliament in the year 154â— quod officiales domesticos commensales suos ab omnibus tributis Indictionibus pensitationibus etiamque Canone in quinquaginta peditum millia praestando Immunes erunt that all his Domestick Officers Houshold servants should not be charged with any Taxes or Tributes or with Assessments towards the payment of 50000 foot men and a like Declaration in the year following de simili immunitate officiis Reginae domesticis commensalibus attributa of the like privileges to the Officers and Houshold servants of the Queen seconded by a Declaration of Henry the second King of France Registred in Parliament in the year 1548. which was about the second year of our King Edward the 6 th of the Privileges of the Kings Domestick and Houshold servants and the like to the Domesticks and servants of Elianor the Widow Queen In which Kingdom also notwithstanding an ordinance made at Moulins about the year of our Lord 1566. which was about the 8 th year of the Raign of our Queen Elizabeth the Masters of Requests are not to be arrested or imprisoned for debt until four months expired after legal notice In the year 1626. the King of France sending the Marshal de Bassompierre his extraordinary Embassador into England to reconcile some differences betwixt our late Royal Martyr King Charles the first and his Royal Consort the Queen concerning the discharge and sending away most of her servants of the French Nation attending upon her contrary as was pretended to the Marriage Contract for some insolences and misdemeanors not to be tolerated and that great Embassador bringing in his Retinue Father Sancy a Popish Priest whom our King had no respect for in regard of some ill offices supposed to be done betwixt him and his Royal Consort the Queen was no sooner come to Gravesend but he had an express Order from our King to send back the Father Sancy who was in his ill opinion and could not be endured to which the Embassador returning an Answer that he was one of his Domesticks and humbly intreating his Majesty not to intermeddle therein said that the example alleged of Mr. Walter Mountague who being in the Retinue of our Embassador Sir Dudley Carleton in France was upon the command of the French King in like manner dismissed was not to be any rule or reason in his case and that howsoever our English Ambassador Carleton permitted it he would rather lose his life than suffer such an affront to be done unto him whereupon the Lord Conway principal Secretary of State after his coming to the Court bringing him a message from the King that he would not give him audience although he had promised it unless he would first send Father Sancy back into France the Embassador replyed that it would be in vain that his Majesty should desire any such thing of him parce que absolument il ne le feroit ponit que si il ne vouloit plus donner audience il retourneroit vers son roy for that he was absolutely resolved not to do it and if he might not have his Audience he would return home without it and notwithstanding that he was extremely pressed by some of our Ministers of State who alleaged that the Kings honor reputation was engaged therein continued his Refusal for that the Father Sancy came along with him by order of his King and the Queen Mother whereupon the Embassador having certified his King of France of the proceedings therein did not long after by a Letter under his own hand receive his approbation for what he had done In the Empire of Germany the Domestique servants of the Emperor are not bereaved of the Privileges of servantâ— attending upon the person as well as the publick cares of their Soveraigns when the
and Mountainous petty Cantons or Republiques who not long ago having massacred all their Nobility and eternally as they hope prohibited the race of them from enjoying any Offices or Imployments in their Armies or Republiques and can boastingly answer inquisitive strangers or passengers with nos non habemus Nobiles we have no Nobility can notwithstanding all their Military Barbarities pay those fitting and well-becoming civilities and due regards to the Ambassadors of Foreign or Neighbour Potentates And may give us to understand that the honours given to Ambassadors do not conclude that there are no respects due to the Servants in ordinary of the Kings and Princes which sent them But that the honour and respect of the Kings manifested in the respect to their Servants is not the cause and foundation of that which is so punctually required and given to Ambassadors When it is as certain that great and often discontents and quarrels have been raised and kindled in the affairs and businesses not only of Nobility and men of great Estates and Eminency but of the vulgar and meaner sort of people for injuries done to their Servants who have been very unwilling to bear or put it up Which the Civil Law and the Custom of many Nations believed to be warranted by that Axiom or Rule that Domini pati dicuntur injurias qui suis fiunt servis Masters do partake and suffer in the injuries done to their Servants And amongst the Jews as their Rabbins expound their Laws were for the time they dwelt with them â—undi instar as setled a Propriety as the Lands which they enjoyed From which our Laws of England do not dissent when they adjudged that injuriam patitur quis per alios quos habet in familia sua sicut per servientes servos in contumeliam suam fuerint verberati vulnerati vel imprisonati quatenus sua interfuerit operibus eorum non caruisse that a man may have wrong done him in those of his Family as in the reproach done unto him by the beating wounding or imprisoning of his Servants whereby he loseth their service A due consideration whereof and that the honour and respect of Kings is and ought to be manifested in the respect to their Servants probably was the cause which made William Walworth that valiant and brave Lord Mayor of London in the Reign of King Richard the second not able to withhold his loyal passion and indignation from knocking down with his Mace Wat Tyler the Rebel in the head of a mighty and unruly Army of Clowns for abusing and making Sir John Newton Knight one of the Kings Servants sent on a Message to him to stand bare before him on foot whilst he sate on horseback So as the people of England may in a less light than the New Lanthorn or Light men do now pretend unto discern a reason for a greater respect to be given unto the Kings Servants in Ordinary than of late they have given when it is to no other or no less than the Servants of Gods Vicegerent some of which enobled by their Birth or Creation others by their Offices Enobleissantaes enobling them as the Treasurer or Comptroller of the Kings most Honourable Houshold who when they do happen as many times not to be of the Nobility are ipso facto at the instant of the conserring those Offices upon them or shortly after made to be of the Kings Privy Councel and with the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England President of the Kings Councel Lord Privy Seal Great Chamberlain Constable Marshal and Admiral of England Great Master or Steward and Chamberlain of the Kings most Honourable Houshold have in this Kingdom as hath been used in other Nations been stiled the Officers of the Crown And our King Henry the 7th taking a care that his Servants should be as well born as virtuously educated did call and elect to the service and attendance of his Privy Chamber the Sons of his Nobility and Gentlemen of the best houses and alliance in most of the Shires of England and Wales And King Henry the 8th his Son did by his Ordinances for Regulation of his Houshold called the Statutes of Eltham made by the advice of his Privy Councel in the 17th year of his Reign command That no Servant be kept by any Officers within the Court under the degree of a Gentleman and that none be admitted into his Majesties service but sueh as be likely persons and fit for promotion and that it should be lawfull to all the Kings Counsellors the King and Queens Chamberlains Vice-Chamberlains and Captain of the Guard the Master of the Horse and Henchmen and the six Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber to keep every of them one Page to attend upon him in the Court so alwayes that he be a Gentleman born well apparelled and conditioned That the six Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber should be well languaged expert in outward parts and meet and able to be sent on familïar Messages or otherwise to outward Princes as the case shall require and charged the Great Officers of his Houshold in their several Offices and Places that none should be admitted into any Place within his House and especially those which beginning in low rooms and places and are accustomed by course to ascend into higher but such as be of good towardness likelihood behaviour demeanour and conversation and as nigh as they could should have respect that they be Personages of good gesture countenance fashion and stature so as the Kings House which is requisite to be the mirrour and example of all other within his Realm may be furnished of Ministers elect tryed and picked for the Kings Honour as to good reason and congruence doth appertain And by other Orders made in the 33th year of his Reign That no Officer of the Houshold should keep any Servant within the House under the degree of a Gentleman and such as should be honest and of good behaviour And by his Proclamation commanded That no Vagabonds Masterless Rascals or other Idle persons should come and harbour in the Court. And as he had a great respect for his Great Officers of State so he had no small one for his more inferiour Servants when in the Orders appointed for his Tables at meat in his Royal House he did ordain that the Lord Great Chamberlain at his three Messes of meat should have sitting with him the Vice-Chamberlain Captain of the Guard Cup-bearers Karvers Sewers to the King Esquires of the Body Gentlemen Huissers and Sewers of the Chamber The Master of the Horse to have the Equirries and Avenors to sit with him and Gentlemen Pensioners as many as can sit And Queen Elizabeth in the first and third year of her Reign intending as the Preamble thereof declared to follow the Godly and Honourable Statutes of Houshold of her Noble Progenitors did by her Proclamation streightly charge and command That
Chamberlain Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings most Honourable Houshold Chancellor of the Exchequer with other of the Kings Privy Councel who together with the Justices of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer do out of the six for every County make choice of three who are in a written Bill by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England shortly after presented to the King who appointeth as he pleaseth one of every three presented unto him as aforesaid for every County to be Sheriff by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal for the year next following And by Authority of the King and his Laws the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England appointeth the Judges in every year their several Circuits maketh and dischargeth all Justices of the Peace And such Petitions as could not be dispatched before the end of Parliaments were frequently adjourned to be heard and determined by the Chancellor and presenteth to all Parsonages or Spiritual Benefices in the Kings right or gift which are under the value of 20 l. per annum according to the antient valuation All the Records in the Courts of Chancery Kings Bench and Common Pleas Justices of Assise and Goal delivery are to be safely kept by the Treasurer and Chamberlains of the Exchequer which the Commons of England in Parliament in the 46th year of the Reign of King Edward the third did in their Petition to the King call the Peoples perpetual evidence and our Kings of England have therefore in several of their Reigns sent their Writs and Mandates to the Chief Justices of both the Benches to cause their Records for some times therein limited to be brought into his Treasury and entrusted with the Treasurer and Chamberlains thereof in whose custody the Standard for all the Weights and Measures of England is likewise kept By an Act of Parliament made in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the third Sheriffs abiding above one year in their Offices may be removed and new ones put in their place by the Chancellor Treasurer and Chief Baron of the Exchequer taking unto them the Chief Justices of the one Beneh or the other if they be present Escheators who were and should be of very great trust and concernment in the Kingdom betwixt the King and his people were to be chosen by the Chancellor Treasurer and Chief Baron of the Exchequer taking into them the Chief Justices of the one Bench or the other if they be present but are since only made by the Lord Treasurer By a Statute made in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. the Lord Privy Seal and other great Lords of the Kings Councel are appointed to redress in Parliament delayes and errours in Judgement in other Courts By an Act of Parliament made in the 20th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King the Chancellor and Treasurer were authorized to hear complaints and ordain remedies concerning gifts and rewards unjustly taken by Sheriffs Bayliffs of Franchises and their Vnder Ministers and also concerning mainteiners and embracers of Juries taking unto them the Justices and other Sage persons such as to them seemeth meet By an Act of Parliament made in the 31th year of the Reign of that King the Lord Chancellor and Treasurer shall examine erronious Judgements given in the Exchequer Chamber And the Chancellor and Treasurer taking to them Justices and other of the Kings Councel as to them seemeth shall take order and make Ordinances touching the buying and selling of Fish By several Acts of Parliament made in the 37th and 38th year of his Reign Suggestions made by any to the King shall be sent with the party making them unto the Chancellor there to be heard and determined and the Prosecutor was to be punished if he prove them not And that upon untrue suggestions the Chancellor should award damages according to his discretion By an Act of Parliament made in the 11th year of the Reign of King Richard the second the keeping of Assises in good Towns are at the request of the Commons in Parliament referred to the Chancellor with the advice of the Judges By an Act of Parliament made in the 13th year of his Reign in every pardon for Felony Murder or Treason the Chamberlain or Vnder Chamberlain was to endorse upon the Bill the Name of him which sued for the same By an Act of Parliament made in the 20th year of his Reign no man shall go or ride armed except the Kings Officers or Ministers in doing their Office By an Act of Parliament made in the first and second year of the Reign of K. Henry the 4th no Lord is to give any Sign or Livery to any Knight Esquire or Yeoman but the King may give his honourable Livery to his menial Knights and Esquires and also to his Knights and Esquires of his Retinue who are not to use it in their Counties but in the Kings presence The Constable and Marshall of England for the time being and their Retinue of Knights and Esquires may wear the Livery of the King upon the Borders and Marches of the Realm in time of War the Knights and Esquires of every Duke Earl Baron or Baneret may wear their Liveries in going from the Kings House and returning unto it and that the King may give his honourable Livery to the Lords Temporal whom pleaseth him And that the Prince and his menials may use and give his honourable Livery to the Lords and his menial Gentlemen By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King Henry the 6th the Lords of the Councel may assign money to be coyned in as many places as they will A Letter of request may be granted by the Keeper of the Privy Seal to any of the Kings Subjects from whom Goods be taken by the King of Denmark or any of his Subjects By an Act of Parliament made in the tenth year of his Reign the Mayor of London shall take his Oath before the Treasurer of England and Barons of the Kings Exchequer wherein he shall be charged and sworn to observe all the Statutes touching Weights and Measures By an Act of Parliament made in the eleventh year of his Reign Fees Wages and Rewards due to the Kings Officers were not to be comprized within the Statute of Resumption made in the 28 th year of the Reign of the King By an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Reign of King Henry the 7th for punishments of Maintenance Embracery Perjuries Riots and unlawfull demeanors of Sheriffs and unlawfull Assemblies it was ordained That the Chancellor and Treasurer of England for the time being Keeper of the Kings Privy Seal or two of them calling unto them a Bishop and a Temporal Lord of the Kings most Honourable Councel and the two Chief Justices of the Kings
seu exemplar as a great and antient example worthy to be imitated whereof one waiting by the space of a month menseque finito adveniente alia prima domum redibat which being ended that returning home another succeeded the other two propriis quivis necessitatibus studentes commorabantur being busied about their own affairs tarried in the mean·time at home secunda itaque cohors mense peracto adveniente tertia domum redibat and the second Troop having served their month the third came into their places and the thirds course or time alotted being ended the first returned to his former attendance Et hoc ordine omnibus vitae praesentis temporibus talium vicissitudinum in Regali Curto rotatur administratio and in this manner all the life time of the said King and by such changes or courses was the service in his Royal Court administred And certainly no small number of Officers and Servants were heretofore thought to be sufficient in England to attend on our Kings and Princes when Hardi-Canutus King of England furnished Tables of meat for his Servants and all comers four times a day when Thomas Earl of Lancaster who was an Attendant himself upon the King had in the Reign of King Edward the second a Bishop and Barons officiating in his house 100 Knights and as many Esquires besides Officers and common Servants Bishops Earls and Lords in after ages rode and travelled with great Trains and Retinues Nicholas West Bishop of Ely in the Reign of King Henry the 8th had continually in his house 200 Servants Edward Earl of Darby 200 men in Checque-Roll in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and John Earl of Oxford although a well-deserving Ancestor of his that led the Vantguard of King Henry the 7th at the Battel of Bosworth-field was in that Kings after Halcyon dayes fined in a then great sum of money for attending him at his house with a very great Retinue did usually ride from his house in Essex to his house at London-Stone in London with 80 Gentlemen in Livery of Red or Tawny with Chains of Gold about their necks and 100 tall Yeomen in the like Livery to follow him without Chains but all wearing his Crest of the blew Boar embroydered on their left armes or shoulders so as in the difference betwixt the Majesty of a great and Soveraign Prince being as the Sun in our Firmament and the grandeur which his Nobility as the Stars in their lesser lights derived from it either did or should endeavour to support the measure or rule of proportion may evidence how necessary it is for a King to have an honourable and competent number of Servants when those that were so much inferior to the Majesty Power and Soveraignty of a free Prince could in their lesser Orbs not want a fitting number to attend upon the Honours which he or some of his Ancestors gave them when as by an Order of his late Majesty in the year of our Lord 1626. 40 Messengers of his Chambers were at all times to be ready to do his Majesty service and at all entertainments and receptions of Ambassadors many of the Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber are commanded to attend such of the Nobility as are appointed by the King to receive and conduct the Ambassadors unto him in so much as in the year 1636. eight Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber were appointed to attend the Earl of Lindsey to bring the King of Polands Ambassador to Hampton-Court and such multitudes and variety of cares and business which do attend a King and the consequences and grand concernments thereof so hugely different from any of their Nobility or Subjects may perswade us to allow our Saul to be as well in the number of their Houshold Servants as in all other things higher from the shoulders upwards than all or any of thâ—m and will better become him than those many which our murmurers were so well content to afford their Oliver the Protector of their intended slâ—very when by his Instrument so called of his Usurped Government he was to have two hundred thousand pounds per annum for defraying the necessary charges of the administration of Justice and other expences of the Government besides all the Kings Revenue which was left unfold being a considerable part thereof with the Fines Amerciaments and casual profits of the basely misused and despoiled Crown of England and a pay and constant yearly maintenance of Ten Thousand Horse and Dragoons and Twenty Thousand Foot in England Scotland and Ireland with a setled yearly Revenue for the maintenance of a convenient number of Ships for guarding of the Seas allowed unto him had his Chamberlain Treasurer and Comptroller of a better house than the Brew-house which he could not thrive in at Huntington his misâ—called Lords of his Privy Counsel Commissioners of his Great Seal Secretary of State his Turn-coat Heralds Serjeants at Armes Messengers of his Chamber Ushers and many other Servants and Officers belonging to his Counterfeit Highness and his Envoys and Ambassadors one of which could not be dressed out or sent with a lesser state and magnificence than 200 Attendants And the Lord Mayor of London being but a temporary and yearly Governour of that City and one of the lesser rayes of the Majesty of our Kings communicated to that annual Magistracy under them can be allowed for his state a Recorder Common Serjeant Chamberlain Townâ—Clerk Coroner Sword-Bearer Marshall Common Hunt Common Cryer Water-Bayliff and Under-Chamberlain four Clerks of his Mayors Court three Serjeant Carvers as many Serjeants of the Chamber a Serjeant and Yeoman of the Channel four Yeomen of the Water-side an Under Water-Bayliff two Yeomen of the Chamber three Meal-Weighers two Yeomen of the Wood-Wharfs the Sword-Bearers man the Common Hunts two men the Common Cryers man the Water-Bayliffs two men and the Carvers man some of which several Officers or Attendants do wait by turns or courses and hath one of the Kings Maces or Serjeant at Armes at some certain times of Solempnity attending upon him a resemblance of a House of Peers in his Court of Aldermen where the Recorder is the Prolocutor and a House of Commons in his Common Counsel both which upon occasions he calls and adjourns at his pleasure hath his Court of Conscience like a Chancery for equity and several Courts of Justice and when he goeth with above 60 Companies of all Trades in a kind of triumph of their Trade and Mysteries to take his Oath before the Barons of the Exchequer hath all the worship and attendance which his Towns-men or Citizens can help him unto every one of which Companies of Trade having some 20 some 45 some 120 Livery men some in their Gowns of Budge and others with Foines who at 20 or 28 l. a piece are willing to purchase a share of preheminence in the rule and ill ordering instead of better of their several Fraternities of Deceipts together with their Whiflers Marshals-men
Anno 1630. Herbert Croft Batchelor of Divinity now Bishop of Hereford and did not refuse divers of the Sons of the Nobility who sought to partake of the honour of access unto his Majesty and the more select rooms of State in his Court which in that of the Kings of Spain is not thought fit to be communicated but to some of their especial Attendants to be sworn Gentlemen Extraordinary of his Privy-Chamber as in the year 1631. the Lord Matravers eldest Son to Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey and Sir William Howard Knight of the Bath now Viscount Stafford his Brother and in the year 1638. the Earl of Kildare the first Earl of Ireland who could not be blamed for their inclinations or tendency to the center of Honour when as long before the Conquest or fatal period of our Saxon Ancestors King Alfred had many of the Sons of the Nobility educated and brought up in his Court and that noble and well becoming custom received and met with in many ages after so great an encouragement as the young Lords or Nobility had a constant Table or dyet in the Court untill in the Reign of King Edward the 6th the perswasions of a needless and unhappy parsimony did put an end to that part of the Royal munificence which King Henry the 3d. in some hundred years before would not in his greatest wants of daily necessaries occasioned by some of his unruly Barons when he took such relief as some Abbeys would afford him quit that part of the honour of his Court or Houshold nor did our late King of blessed memory deny the like honour of his Privy-Chamber to divers Gentlemen of note or great esteem in their Countries as Sir Arthur Capel Knight aâ—terwards Lord Capel that heroick and loyal Martyr for his King and the Fifth Commandment of his Heavenly King charged upon all Mankind in the Decalogue Sir Thomas Richardson Knight Son of Sir Thomas Richardson Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings-Bench or Sir Thomas Roe Knight a learned and well experienced Embassador to the Mogor or Mogull that great Prince in the East-Indies and to several States and Kingdoms in Christendom Sir Fulk Hunkes Knight and Sir Ferdinando Knightley Knight two well experienced Commanders in the English Regiments in the Netherlands or United Provinces Sir Edward Dearing Knight one of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament in the year 1641. and unto Sir William Waller Knight who afterwards bitterly repented the vain-glory of being a Conqueror of some of his Soveraigns Forces endeavouring to defend him and their Laws and Liberties in the late Rebellion and to some others who could afterwards stain their formerly more loyal Families in that horrid Rebellion and imploy their time and Estates against their King which had â—o much honoured them or to admit into his service as a Servant Extraordinary Edmond Cooper a Drummer John Houghton a Chirurgeon or some excellent Picture-drawer as the famous Sir Anthony van Dike or some Foreign curious Engineer Gunsmith or other excelling Artificers who without some such encouragements would not have benefited our Nation with their skill and residence and was in that Prince of blessed memory and will be in our gracious Soveraign no less allowable than iâ— was in King David to take into his Family as an Extraordinary when his affection and gratitude prompted him unto it Chimham the son of the good old Barzillai when many of the Yeomanry of England have besides their Servants in ordinary some that are as extraordinary and work a great part of the year with them And the Nobility and Gentry of England sincâ— their restraint of giving Liveries by several Acts of Parliament to prevent the too freequent use of that in making of parties and factions in one of which viz. that of the first and second year of the Reign of King Henry the 4th cap. 21. it is provided as hath been mentioned That the King may give his Honourable Livery to his menial Knights and Esquires and also to his Knights and Esquires of his retinue who are not to use it in their Counties but in the Kings presence and the Prince and the Nobility coming unto the Court and returning from thence were specially excepted are not at this day debarred the moderate use of Liveries or some as extraordinary Servants to be imployed upon several occasions to retain unto them as the Lord Mayor of London is not without the attendance of Livery-men of the Companies or Fraternities of Trade or such as he shall select out of them in some grand Solemnities as the meeting or welcoming of the King to his City or Chamber of London at his return from a Progress or from Scotland to conduct into the City a Russian or Persian Embassador and it hath been ever accounted to be a Royal or honourable way of Espargne to have some to be extraordinary Servants without the charge of Bouche of Court or annual salaries to be alwayes in readiness at grand festivals or occasions and those Citizens of London and men of the Mysteries of gain and Trade who have aggrandized their Credits and Estates by the Sun-shine and warmth of the residence of the King and his Courts of Justice can when a little before they could busie themselves in needless murmurs and complaints against the Priviledges of the Kings Servants in ordinary and extraordinary think themselves to be no mean men in their Parishes and Companies if they can procure the favour to be admitted the Kings Servants extraordinary as he shall have occasion to be cozened in such Manufactures or Wares as their Trades afford in so much as it is become the preferment and ambition of one of every Trade great or little some few only excepted in the City of London to be entituled to be the Kings Servant as the Kings Grocer Brewer Apothecary Mercer Draper Silk-man Taylor Printer Stationer Bookseller Girdler a Trade now altogether disused Shoomaker Spurrier c. and are well contented to enjoy all the Priviledges appertaining to the Kings Servants as not to bear Offices in their Parishes or Custard-cram'd Companies and not to be arrested without licence And their Wives swelling into a tympany of Pride will be apt enough to think their former place and reputation too far beneath them and not let their Husbands purse have any rest or quiet untill they can be fine enough to go to the Court and see the Lords and Ladies their Husbands fellow Servants And they which cannot attain to that honour to be such a Servant of the Kings extraordinary for they cannot be truly said to be any thing more than the Kings Servants extraordinary when as he as to many of them hath no daily or but a seldom and occasional use of them and where he hath most it is not constantly or often do think it to be worth the utmost of their endeavours to obtain the honour and priviledge of being the Queens
of record under his Seal In Easter Term in the fourth year of that King in an Action of Trespass after a distress awarded against the Jurors and the Array challenged a Protoction was after a grand debate allowed Martin one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas going to the Justices of the Kings Bench to ask their advice and from thence into the Exchequer Chamber to Juni Chief Baron In Michaelmas Term in the 19th year of the Reign of that King a man being taken by a Capias had a Protection allowed quia moraturus for the victualling of a Fort in Scotland upon a probability that he came to London to buy victuals and that issue might be taken thereupon and a repeal obtained In Hillary Term in the same year Newton Justice said that if the Demandant cast a protection it lyeth not yet an Essoin of the Service of the King doth And where the King commandeth an Attorney to do him service whereby he appeared not and the Client loseth in the mean time his land and he brings a Writ of disceit against him then it would be against reason that the King should compell him to do him service and that he should not be Essoined for that service but in such a case it seems to be usual to record the Kings service and in that case the Essoiner shall be sworn that he was in the Kings service And that a woman may be in the Kings service for that she is Nurse or Landress and a man as his Carver In Michaelmas Term in the 22th year of the Reign of that King in an Action inter Brookesby and Everard Digby al jour de nisi prius a Protection was brought and although Paston was of opinion it was not allowable because it did not agree with the Record yet Ascue was of opinion that if the Protection said suscepimus in Protectionem it was to be allowed In Michaelmas Term in the 27th year of the aforesaid King an Essoin cast for one who was gone into the Holy-land was refused because six months were passed and the Defendant should be allowed a year and a day and it was said by the Judges that it was the like where the party was in service del Roy yet it was allowed to be good in a common Essoin and a common Essoin was cast accordingly And in an Action brought in the Exchequer by a Denizen against two Aliens and the Jury adjourned a Protection was brought by the one bearing date the first day of the Nisi prius and by the second bearing date the second day and both allowed as it was in a like case and as it was held by the Judges of the one Bench and the other in the case of the Lord Hungerford In Michaelmas Term in the 8th year of that Kings Reign Danby Justice said in the case of Sir Robert Hungerford that in one and the same day the Defendant may cast many Protections and it was said that no Protection quia profecturus purchased pending the plea is allowable if it be not in a Voyage Royal or with the King himself or for great business of the Realm as appeareth by the Statute made in the 13th year of the Reign of King Richard the 2d cap. 16. and Prisot chief Justice did bid the Defendant sue to the Privy Seal and bring a Certificate that his Captain by Indenture was to serve the King in his warrs which being shewed and it appearing that he was to go into Norusandie to serve under such as the King should appoint but because it appeared not by the Indenture nor the Protection that it was in the case of the Statute the Protection was not allowed In the same Term Richard Vere bringing a Protection quia moraturus super vitulationem ville Calesie and the Plaintiff averring that he was within the four Seas and not in the Kings service the Plaintiff was ordered upon a resummons to prove his averment In Easter Term in the 30th year of that Kings Reign after an Imparlance the Defendant bringing his Protection quia moraturu super salva custodia Castri Domini Regis de B. in partibus transmarinis that he was imployed in the safe custody of the Castle of B in the parts beyond the Seas and was afterwards seen in Court it was said that if a man protected be afterwards seen in England the Plaintiff may sue forth the Kings Innotescimus to repeal the Kings Letters Patents for the Protection And that if a man bringing his Protection at the Nisi prius if betwixt that and the day in bank the Protection be repealed there shall be a resummons sued and Danby said that the Protection until the repeal was alwayes allowable In Easter Term in the 35th year of the Reign of that King it was agreed to be law that where Justices of Nisi prius have no power to allow or disallow a Protection they ought to surcease In Hillary Term in the 38th year of the Reign of the said King a Protection being cast for one that was committed to the Fleet and had a Cepi corpus retorned against him Moyle Justice alledged that he might notwithstanding be in the Service of the King whereupon the next day after he was mainprised and the Protection was allowed until the Court should further consider of it In Hillary Term in the 39th year of the Reign of the said King a Protection being disputed because it wanted the usual form it was alledged that there needed no special Protection to go to Rome for that the Embassadors or Procurators of the King who go and remain there for the profit of the King and his Realm have never used to have such Protections and if they had it would have been seen before that time and that the King by his Prerogative may take a man into his protection where another is not to be disherited and Moyle one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas then said that the King might grant a Protection for a year and that being elapsed might grant another for the like Term c. but not at the first and that a Protection quia profecturus doth not lye pendente placito depending the Plea if it be not in a Voyage Royal or business of the Realm In Michaelmas Term in the second year of King Edward the fourth at the return of a Petit cape against the Husband and Wife which is a Judgement by defalt the Husband did cast an Essoin of the Service of the King which was allowed and it was in that case said by Moyle that a Protection of the King differed from an Essoin of his Service for that the intent and effect of the Protection is that the King is the parties Protector and hath taken him into his protection and defence In Hillary Term in the 7th year of the Reign of that King the Judges were of opinion that
signified by the Emblems or Figures of the Lyons guarding or supporting of Solomons Throne and astonishing Royalty Which most laudable custom was not only observed in the time of the Western and Eastern Emperors but of the Franks Goths Longobards and other Northern Nations who imitated them And from such honourable services and employments about Emperors Kings and Princes likewise were derived Count Palatines whom they found a kind of necessity to institute when they understood their other Subjects to be troubled that none but Romans had those honours and dignities conferred upon them and their Courts and Palaces appeared to be solitary and unfrequented and therefore opened the doors of honour to their Subjects of other Nations and Provinces as appears by the after usage of the Roman and Grecian Emperors and made and ordained Comites sacri Falatii Count Palatines which the Title of Count Palatine given by Charlemaine to Antholinus will further evidence and the Count Palatines of the Empire of Germany as Pasquier that learned Advocate of France hath remarked had their names from their Offices Superintendencies and Places which they antiently held au tour des Empereurs de Rome de la Suitte des Empereurs and in their service and attendance as Crmites Palatii were in Comitativa Principis in the Retinue of the Emperors which in the elder times were so reverenced and respected as it was not unfrequently in many Laws and good Authors stiled Sacra as meriting a veneration due unto Gods Vicegerents Et ipsa Principis Aula residentia and the Court and Palace of the Prince was saith Marquardus Freherus sometimes known by the name of Comitatus sacer comitatus a place of reverence more especially appropriate to honor and men deserving it and the French Kings Court is by the modern French at this day tearmed Comitatus and in the time of Charlemaine and his Son Hludowick Kings of France the Earls were tanquam Judices Judges in their several Earldomes or Provinces qui post Regem populum regere debent who next under the King as the Dukes did in their several Dukedoms were to govern the people necesse est ut tales instituantur qui sine periculo ejus qui â—os constituit quos sub se babent cum justitia aequitate gubernare officium adimplere procurent there being a necessity that such should be appointed who without danger of those who constituted or deputed them may have under them such as may govern them with Justice and Equity and do what belongeth to them And our Earls and English Nobility were of the like Character Esteem and Subserviency to our Kings and Princes when in the time of Bertulphus King of the Mercians who Reigned in England in the year of our Lord 851. such of them as had not as Sir Henry Spelman saith constant Offices or places in the Kings Court tenebantur ex more obsequii vinculo antiquissimo as also were the other Baronage in tribus maximis festivitatibuus Christi scilicet natalitiis Sancti Paschatis Pentecostes Regi Annuatim adesse cum ad curiam personam ipsius exornandum tum ad consulendum de negotiis regni statuendum que prout fuerat necessarium were by most antient custome and tye of obedience at three of the greatest Feasts in every year that is to say at Christmass Easter and Whitsontide to attend at the Kings Court as well for the honour of his Person and Court as to advise and councel him as there should be occasion in the weighty affairs of the Kingdom which saith that great light and restorer of our English Antiquities gave at the first an original and beginning to our great Councels afterwards and now called Parliaments and Johannes Saresburiensis stiled all the great Officers of the English Court Comites Palatini Earls or Lords of the Palace Royal at least such as being Earls were also honoured with the greater Court Dignities and had relation to the Dignities and Privileges of our English Nobility Such service and attendance of the Nobility upon the person and affairs of their Soveraign being not unusual in the dayes of Jehoiakim King of Judah when Michaiah the son of Gemariah found all the Princes sitting in the Kings house in the Scribes chamber and standing besides the King when the Roll of Baruch was read When the great King Ahasuerus made a Feast unto all his Princes and his servants the power of Persia and Media the Nobles and Princes of the Provinces being before him and he shewed the honour of his Excellent Majesty he advised concerning the misbehaviour of his Queen Vaschi with the wise men which knew the times for so was the Kings manner towards all that knew law and judgement and with the seven Princes of Persia and Media which saw the Kings face and sate the first in the Kingdome And those Officiary Dignities Honors and Privileges of the English Nobility were so consonant to the Law of Nations and the usage and customs of the Empire as in Anglia tam ante quam post Conquestore Wilhelmum Normannum Comites seu Graviones Justitiarii hisque cum ad privata quam publica judicia suis fuere in comitatibus and not only before but for sometimes after the Norman Invasion did under their Kings preside and govern the Justice of that County or Territory of which they were Earls and had allowed unto them the Tertium denarium Third penny or part of the fines and amerciaments and the customs and some other casual profits belonging to the Crown in their several Counties as our Selden a most universally learned and judious Lawyer hath in the Earldoms of Chester and Oxford observed and for some of the Ages succeeding the Norman atchievment have been Chief Justices of Englund as in the Reign of King Stephen Awbrey de Vere Earl of Guisnes Father of Awbrey de Vere the first Earl of Oxford Robert de Bellomont or Beaumont Earl of Leicester in the Reign of King Henry the 2d and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter Earl of Essex in the Reigns of King Richard the first and King John our Bracton acknowledging that our Earls and Nobility were upon occasions to attend upon the person of their Sovereign Prince calleth our Earls Comites a Comitando sive a Socieâ—ate from or by reason of their accompanying or attendance upon the person of the Prince saith dici possunt Consules Reges enim tales sibi associant ad consulendum and our Nation was not without its Local Count Palatines who had greater authorities and profits in their Counties and Jurisdictions than other Earls as those of Chester Lancaster Pembroke and the Palatineships belonging to the Bishopicks of Durham and Ely And Hoveden our old Annals and Selden that Monarch of Letters do tell us that King John die Coronationis suae accinxit Willielmuw Marescallum gladio Comitatus de Striguil
a Caesare constituti qui sine provocatione cognoscebant the Judges appointed by the Emperour to hear and determine without appeal matters concerning their Lands and Territories in the House of Peers in Parliament being the highest Court of the Kingdome of England none were there admitted or did administer Justice nisi qui proximi essent a Rege ipsique arctioris fidei homagii vinculo conjuncti but such as were near unto the King held of him in Capite and were therefore called Capitanei Regni as Sir Henry Spelman saith Captains of the Kingdome and Peers being obliged and bound unto him by Homage and Fealty that highest and most honourable Court of the Kingdome wherein the Judicative Power of Parliament under the King their Head and Chief resides for the lower house or Representative of the Commons are but as a Court of grand Enquest to exhibit the grievances of the Nation and the People who did choose them to represent them as their Procurators give their consent to the raising of moneys for publick occasions and benefit and the making of good Laws intended to be obeyed by them being constituted by the King their Head and Soveraign the Prince or Heir apparent Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons Arch-bishops Bishops and some of the greater Abbots and Pryors holding their Lands and Possessions of the King in Capite until they were dissolved the Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the great Seal of England Lord President of the Kings Councel Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Lord Admiral Lord Chamberlain of England and of the Houshold Grand Master or Steward of the Kings house and the Kings Chief Secretary though no Barons assisted by the Learned and Reverend Judges of the Law and Courts of Justice at Westminster Hall who have no vote Masters of Chancery Clark of the Crown and Clark of that more Eminent part of the Parliament sitting in their several and distinct places according to their qualities and degrees upon benches or woolsacks covered with red cloth before the Kings Throne or Chair of Estate attended by the Kings Senior Gentleman Usher of the Presence Chamber called the black Rod to whom for or by reason of his attendance upon that honourable Assembly is and hath been antiently allowed annexed for his better support the little Park of Windsor with an house or lodge thereunto belonging of a good yearly value Serjeants at Arms Clarks of that higher house of Parliament as the members reverencing taking care for their Head and Soveraign the Only under God Protector of themselves and all their worldly concernments laws and liberties in which high and honourable Assembly the Archbishops and Bishops do enjoy the priviledge and honour of being present by reason of their Baronies which howsoever given in Frank Almoigne and as Elemosinary are holden in capite debent interesse judiciis curiae regis cum Baronibus are not to be absent saith the constitution or Act of Parliament made at Clarendon by K. Henry the second and that honourable Tenure being Servitium Militare a tye of duty and service to them as well as to the other Baronage any neglect therein was so penal unto them as the Lords in Parliament saith William Fitz Stephen cited by the learned Selden did in the Reign of King Henry the Second notwithstanding that Arch-bishops plea and defence wherefore he did not come to that great Councel or Parliament when he was commanded condemn the Ruffling and domineering Arch-bishop Tho. Becket in a great sum of money the forfeiture of all his moveable goods and to be at the Kings mercy guilty of high Treason for not coming to that high Court when he was cited and the reason given of that judgement for that ex reverentia Regiae Majestatis ex astrictione ligii homagii quod Domino Regi fecerat ex fidelitate observantia terreni honoris quemei Juraverat for that in the reverence and respect which he ought to have shewed to the Majesty of the King and by his homage made unto him and his Oath of Fealty sworn to observe and defend his Honour he ought to have come but did not and a Fine was afterwards likewise obout the Reign of King Edward the second imposed upon the Lord Bello-monte or Beaumont for not attending when he was summoned ad Consulendum Regi to give the King his Advice or Councel And certainly those great and many singular privileges and immunities given by our Kings the Fountains and Establishers of honours and the Offices and Imployments about their Sacred Persons appurtenant unto that noble and very Antient Degree and Titles of Episcopacy may easily invite the order of Bishops not to think it to be a disparagement to their Hierarchy when the dignity Royal of our Kings do as the Roman Emperours since the time of Constantine the Great necessarily require by turns or sometimes in every year the attendance of the Bishops in their Courts or Palaces and they are to be a la Suite du Roy pour honorer sa Majeste to be near the King for the honour of his Majesty when the King is the Guardian and Head of the Church and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury his Apocrisiarius which was an antient Office and Title of the Bishops afterwards appropriate to the Arch-bishop or Metropolitan who was in Palatio pro Ecclesiasticis negotiis excubare to oversee and take care of the Affairs of the Church in the Kings Court or Palace Capellanus Regis dictus omnibus praefuit negotiis ministris ecclesiae was stiled the Kings Chaplain presided and was under the King superintendent as to Ecclesiastical Affairs over all the business and Ministers of the Church and Chappel and in those things quae ad divinum Cultum in principiâ— aula pertinent precipua semper fuit cura atque sollicitudo Archiepiscopi which appertained to Gods worship in the Kings Palace the chief care and business thereof in the duties of Religion and holy Rites belongeth unto him and is in that particular but as the Kings special Chaplain not as Mathew Parker a learned and worthy Archbishop of that See in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the Papal inflations were out of fashion would make the reason of those privileges to be because the Kings and Queens of Enggland were ejus speciales atque domesticos Parochianos his more especial Parishioners and the whole Kingdome howsoever divided into distinct Diocesses was but as one Parish though he could not be ignorant that the Arch-bishop of York and his Suffragan Bishops in one and the same Kingdome were none of his Parish nor was as Doctor Peter Heylin a right learned and dutiful Son of the Church of England by antient privilege of the See of Canterbury supposeth him to be Ordinary of the Court of his Majesties houshold being reckoned to be his Parishioners or of his Peculiar wheresoever the same shall be the Chancellor
and unfitting a course or method of Government For can any man that is Master of the least grain of Reason or Prudence think it safe for a Kingdom so to restrain if it could be a Soveraign Prince when a person in time of Pestilence or otherwise shall with a Plague-Sore running upon him come into the presence of the King who in case of Leprosie when it was more frequent than now it is can for the preservation of His People from the infection thereof make His Writ de Leproso amovendo command the Leper to be removed to some other place that He should have no power to bid any of His Servants to cause him to be taken away or put in prison Or that King James when his Life was assaulted by the Assassinate which Earl Gowrey had appointed to murther him did transgress any Law of Scotland Nature or Nations when he did arrest and struggle with him until the loyal Sir John Ramsey came to his Rescue Or that that prudent Prince after his coming into England did break any Law of England Nature or Nations or not perform the Office of a King when by his own Authority he did without sending to the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench or a Justice of Peace for his Warrant cause Sir Thomas Knivet and others to apprehend Guydo Faux but some minutes before the Match should have been secretly and undiscovered laid in order to the firing of the Gunpowder and other Matterials which were shortly after to take fire for the accomplishment of the intended treason of him and his wicked Complices to destroy the King Prince Nobility and the Chiefest of his People assembled in Parliament and all that were in or near the Cities of London and Westminster by the Gunpowder Plot of blowing up the Houses of Parliament And whether a King may not in the like case of Contempt or Danger as well do it as he may do where a Souldier prest in the Kings Service upon a Certificate by the Captain into the Chancery being the Watch-Tower or Treasury of the Kings Justice that he absented himself send his Writ or Mandate to one of his Serjeants at Arms to take him which Sir Edward Coke saith may be done per Legem terrae by the Law of the Land and may upon a Certificate of an Abbot or Prior into the Chancery do the like by his Writ to the Sheriff to take a man professed in Religion that is Vagrant and alloweth it to be Lex Terrae a Legal Process so to do in honorem Religionis in honour and respect to Religion or may not as wel imprison a man for a Contempt as Discharge him Or why He may not Arrest or cause any man to be Arrested for Felony or Treason or but suspition thereof when Sir Edward Coke is of opinion any man may do in the Kings Name upon a common Fame or Voice or Arrest a man by warranty of Law and of his own Authority which woundeth another dangerously or keepeth company with a notorious Thief whereby he is suspected or if the King shall not upon necessity or extraordinary occasions be enabled to do it for that supposed rather than any reason at all that he ought not so to do in regard that no man can have an Action against Him for any wrong or injury done unto him by the King How have our Lawes and reasonable Customes for many Centuries and Ages past submitted unto and not at all complained of the Kings Seizure of Lands but suspected to be forfeited or of Lands aliened without Licence or pardon of Alienation and the like Or why should not our Kings have as much liberty as the holy King Edward the Confessour might have had if he would to have commanded a Thief to be apprehended for stealing in the Royal Lodgings when he bad him onely be gone lest Hugeline his Chamberlain should come in and take him Or as legally as King Edward the Third and his Council did commit one that was found arm'd in his Palace to the Marshalsea whence he could not be bayl'd or deliver'd until the Kings Will and Pleasure should be known Or as it was adjudged in the thirty nineth year of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth when in an Action of Trespass the Defendant justified the doing thereof by the Command of the King when he was neither Bayliff nor Officer of the Kings and it was adjudged by the Judges that he might so do without any Deed or Writing shewed for it or if they should mistake in their Arrests or Imprisonments of suspected Traytors or Felons should not have as much liberty as a Justice of Peace hath in criminal matters or as the Judges have in his Courts of Justice in civil Actions where the parties that mistake or bring their Actions where they should not or Arrest one man in stead of another are onely punished with Costs of Suit or Actions of False Imprisonment but not the Judges or Justices of Peace for howsoever some Flatterers when King Richard the Third having murthered his Nephews and usurped the Crown and sate one day in the High Court of Chancery had in some of the Pleadings or Causes heard before him alledged that the King could do no wrong and some of our Lawyers have since so much believed it as they have reduced it into a kind of Maxime and given it a place in some of their Arguments Reports Yet Bracton in the Reign of King Henry the Third and Justice Stamford in the Reign of Queen Mary did believe the King might unwillingly by Himself or His Officers or Ministers do wrong and declared the Law to be both in Bractons and Stamfords time that in such Cases the Subjects where they have any matter of Complaint or Grievance need not want their legal Remedies by Traverse Monstrans de Droit or Petition the reason of the latter being as Stamford saith because the Subject hath no other Remedy against the King but to supplicate him by Petition for the Dignity sake of the Person And a late Experience hath told us how a Dispute betwixt our two Houses of Parliament whether a Great Person accused of Delinquency might be Arrested and put under Custody before his Charge or Accusation could be made ready gave the Party opportunity to escape into the Parts beyond the Seas and the Disputants leisure and time enough to agree of the matter And it should be remote enough from any the suspition of Errour or over-credulity for any man to think an Arrest or Imprisonment by the immediate Command of the King in the case of Treason or Felony or but suspition of either of them not to be as legal as that of a Justice of Peace made by a Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England in his Name and by his Authority derived under him And those who will take out Sir Edward Coke's before mentioned Lessons and enter themselves into
neque regnum salvum incolume neque regia vis dignitas elucescere possit there being certain properties or qualities requisite to a Superiority without which neither a Kingdome can be in any safety nor the Kingly Honour and Dignity can manifest or shew it self And if Judges and Magistrates have a kind of participation thereof imparted unto them by their Soveraign majore ratione regum eos constituentium hisque fascibus â—tque Majestate decorantium Regia Majestas nuncupabitur with greater reason Kings who adorned them with those Ensigns or resemblances as it were of Regality and bestowed it upon them are not to want or be without it the Majesty of Kings being so much appointed and approved by God himself as he made Corah Dathan and Abiram and their Children and favorers the dire examples of his wrath and punishment but for murmuring against Moses and Aaron and saying they took too much upon them and so imprinted a reverence and esteem of Kings in the hearts and minds of mankind as Joab King Davids general of his Army having fought against Raab of the Children of Ammon would not when he was ready to do it until he had invited David to come and have the Honor of taking it least that City should be afterwards called by the name of Joab that took it And Nebucadrezzar King of Babilon during the Captivity of Jehoiakim King of Judah could attribute so much to the Rights of Majesty in Kings as he spake kindly unto him and set his Throne above the Thrones of the Kings who were with him in Babilon Wherein certainly the sad hearted people of Israel in Captivity with him did take it to be their Duty as well as their Interest to rejoyce in that parcell of Humanity and Honor which was done unto him when as long before the Palatia or Curiae Palaces of their Kings were so highly Honored by them as the 122 Psalm of the Kingly Prophet David exhorted that people to Pray that Peace might be within the Walls and Prosperity within her Palaces The Glory and Honor of Solomon was accompted to be no less than the Interest Delight and Joy of the people of Israel when after his Feast upon the Dedication of the Temple and his Sacrifice of the Peace offerings they Blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyfull and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Loâ—d had done for David his Servant and for Israel his people The Romans so experimented the Honor of their Emperors living or dead to be the great Interest of their people as they that fled to their Statues were protected from their Pursuers whether it were in Civil matters or criminal The Germans their Successors in that Empire took it ill in the Reign of their Charles the fifth Emperour who was likewise King of Spaine that the Spanish Grandees or other of that Nobility did give so much Honor as they usually did to their Princes and Emperors cases of Treason only excepted And it was beleived to be so much an Interest of our English true hearted Ancestors to be as carefull as they were Jealous of the Honor of their Kings As when Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury would in the Reign of King William Rufus peevishly hold on his resolution of disparaging of it in going to Rome to the Pope for his Pall and confirmation the great men and almost all the Nobility of the Kingdom and the other Bishops Assembled in Parliament at Rockingham Castle concerning that obstinacy of Anselme the Bishops and and many of the Nobility declared unto that Archbishop then present that the whole Kingdom did complain of him that he sought to take away the Honor of the King his Crown and Dignity and delivered their opinions that Quicunque Regiae dignitatis consuetudines tollit coronam simul regnum tollit unum quippe sine alio decenter haberi non posse whosoever took away any thing from the Kings Regality and Dignity took away at the same time both his Crown and Kingdom for the one could not Honorably subsist without the other King Edward the 3d by the advice of the Lords and Commons in Parliament in the 13th year of his Reign did Ordain that in case the Keepers of the Priviledges of the Hospitlers should incroach upon the Kings Jurisdictions and offend the Kings Dignity they should beware from thenceforth that they usurpe not any Jurisdiction in prejudice of the King and his Crown and if they did their Superiors should be charged for their fact as much as if they had been convict upon their proper Act. In a Parliament holden in the two and fortieth year of the aforesaid Kings Reign it was declared by the Lords and Commons therein Assembled that they could not assent to any thing which tended to the disherâ—son of the King and his Crown to which they were sworn The Lords and Commons in Parliament in the 14th year of the Reign of King Richard the second did pray the King that the prerogative of him and his Crown may be kept and that all things done or attempted to the conâ—rary might be redressed and that he might be as free as any of his Progenitors ever were and in the 15th year of his Reign did in Parliament again require that he would as lawfully as any of his Progenitors enjoy his Prerogative Richard Earl of Arundell in the 17 year of the Reign of the aforesaid unfortunate Prince did complain that John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster who was then moulding the Sesign which his Son afterwards accomplished by usurpation of the Throne did go Arm in Arm with the King and that it beseemed not the Dukes men to wear the same Color of Livery that the Kings did By an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Reign of King Henry the 7th the Officers or Tenants of the King were not to be retained by Liveries with others And divers of the great Nobility did in the Reign of King Henry the Eight make it one of their Articles of high Treason and great misdemeanors against Cardinal VVolsey the great ingrosser of that Kings favor and manager of his Authority for that he being suspected to have the French Pox had stood and talked so near the King as to breath in his face The extent and verge of whose Royal house or Palace at VVhitehall and the Liberties and Priviledges thereof were so little desired to be lessened or diminished as the Parliament did in the 28th year of his Reign Ordain that the Park of St. James and the street leading from Charing-cross to the Sanctuary-gate at Westminster and all the Houses Buildings Lands and Tenements on both sides of the same street or way from the said Crosse unto Westminster-hall scituate lying and being betwixt the water of the Thames on the East part and the said Park-wall on the VVest part and so forth thorough all
Regale Necessarium OR The Legality Reason and Necessity OF THE Rights and Priviledges Justly Claimed by the Kings Servants And which ought to be allowed unto them By Fabian Philipps Seneca in Traged Octavia Act 2. Collecta vitia per tot Aetates diu In nos redundant Seculo premimur gravi Lucanus de Bello Civili lib. 9. Squalent Serpentibus Arva Durum iter ad Leges patriaeque ruentis amorem LONDON Printed for Christopher Wilkinson and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Black-Boy in Fleet-street over against St. Dunstans Church 1671. To the Illustrious and Right Honourable James Duke Marquess and Earl of Ormond one of the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councel Lord Steward of his Majesties most Honourable Houshold and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter And unto the Right Honourable Edward Earl of Manchester one of the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councel Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties most Honourable Houshold and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter My Lords WEre it not that these unhappy times have brought forth a sort of reasonless men whose humors and Phancies led by an ignorance or Interest makes them unwilling to submit to Laws and the necessary and just means and Rules of Government unless their understanding which in those quarrelling and contentious Sceptickes is little enough may be convinced and satisfied with the Reason thereof these my Labours might have seemed to be as needless as Physick for those which are in Health and to be little more than a quarrel with my own Shadow But they that hear the dayly complaints now more than ever made against the Legal and just Priviledges of the Kings Servants the affronts offered to the Majesty and Supreme Authority of the King by Arresting and Imprisoning them without leave first obteyned of the Lord Chamberlain of his most Honourable Houshold or those other great Officers therein to whom it appertayneth and by bringing of Writs of Habeas Corpus by those which have been taken and Arrested by the Kings Messengers for their contempts therein to be delivered by the subordinate Courts of Justice against the mind and Authority of the King that Commissionated them and those many disparaging contests which do arise thereupon with the unwarrantable Opinions now put to Nurse that the King cannot in such a case protect his Servants without a great delay or hindrance of the Execution of Justice that they being Outlawed may be Arrested whether he will or no And that he hath so conveyed his Justice to his Courts of Justice as he is not in the case of his Servants to intermeddle therein may I hope Apologize for my undertaking and endeavors to perswade them out of those and some other their great mistakings and Errors which may produce a neglect and slighting of Authority and many an unforeseen evil consequence In the management whereof I can call my most reserved and private thoughts to witness and they will therein I am confident acquit me that I have not built an Altar to flattery or made any design or hopes of preferment to be my guide or incitement thereunto but have done what I now present unto you only to maintain the Honour and respect which is due to our Soveraign Lord the King and his Servants casta mente manu accompanied with a principle and opinion that he deserves to be accompted the greatest of villaines that would make it his design to lessen or detract from any of the Kings Rights Prerogative and just means of Government and to be ever infamous that for any ends whatsoever would endeavor to diminish or take away any of the peoples Legal Rights Liberties and Priviledges And in that middle way and path of Truth and doing Right to all Parties have no intention to give any assistance for the defrauding or too much delaying of Creditors just debts or stopping the course of Justice in any the peoples Actions or Prosecutions of their rights or for remedies against Wrongs or Injuries done unto them by any indirect course or shelter for such as shall only pretend themselves to be the Kings Servants when they are not truly or really thereunto entituled In which my Labours if any shall undervalue the Authorities which I have brought from the Laws of Nations Customs or usage of all or the most of our Kings and Princes and the Civil Law that great repository of Reason and Prudence to fortifie my assertion of the Priviledges of the Kings Servants they may please to understand that they are principally derived from the Laws of Nations Civil Law and universal right Reason consonant and agreeable to our common Laws which have instructed and guided themselves by many a maxime and piece of right Reason which they have received from them Or shall say that the Records of this Kingdom which have been cited in Conformity thereunto are only fit to make a history but do serve for no proof as some of those of the long robe have with much Injury unto them and themselves and the Truth not long ago been pleased to say or that the old things are passed away those Antiquities are obsolete and little to be regarded Wee are now upon a new way the Law hath been much altered and changed and those evidences and venerable Monuments of Time being the vestigia and footsteps of antient Laws and Customs are not to be much respected And will adventure to vent such Doctrines or Opinions and make themselves as Gutherius a learned French Advocate complaineth guilty of the neglects of those very necessary and usefull parts of Learning and Knowledge which are to be found in the Treasuries of Time and Antiquities may upon better consideration find cause to believe that the Reason of Laws doth never Expire that the unerring Wisdom of the Almighty that Writ some Laws with his own Finger and commanded his beloved people of Israel to repeat them to their Children and after Generations to ask of the days that were past and which were before them since the day that God Created man upon the Earth and that Bildâ—d the Sâ—uhite one of Jobs Friends gave him no ill Counsel when he advised him to enquire of the former Age and prepare himself to the search of his fathers and enforceth it by a Reason that we are but of yesterday and know nothing because our days upon earth are a Shadow and the giver of all Wisdom did long after by his holy Spirit in the Prophet Jeremy enjoyn them to stand in the ways and see and ask for the old Paths that in the making of new Laws and the amending or correcting of the old The knowledge of those which have been altered repealed or laid aside is not a little necessary to the end that by the old we may see the necessity and perfection of the new and by the old how to avoid the failings which might happen in the
the Lord Percy now Earl of Northumberland Mr. Jermyn now Earl of S. Albans and Mr. Henry Piercy in the Privy Gallery or Lodgings with blew Ribbons tyed or hanging about the upper part of their Legs or Boots he was so displeased therewith as he would not be pacified until he had called for a pair of Scissers and had with his own hands cut or clipped them off And well might it be observed in England when the Vltima Thule and our less Civilized Neighbours of Scotland Infected with the Careless and over-bold behaviour of some of their late Presbyterian Clergy towards Royal Majesty are not without those dutyful respects of being bare and uncovered in the Presence Chamber or Chief Rooms of their Kings Palaces although they be absent and out of the Kingdom and when any Acts of Parliament are agreed upon the Kings high Commissioner Presiding in Parliament in his absence bringeth the Acts of Parliament to the Kings Chair of Estate upon which and a Velvet Cushion the Royal Scepter being laid the Lord Commissioner kneeling before it and touching it with the Scepter gives a Sanction and Authority unto those or any other Acts of Parliament in that Submiss and dutyful manner touched therewith and makes them to be of as great Validity as if they had been Ratified by the Royal Signature And with more or a greater Reason might Kings and Free-Princes claim a Veneration to their Palaces or Houses when Bishops Antiently had their Episcopia or Houses so Respected as a Synod or Council thought fit to Order it a too much or more then ordinary respect when they Decreed Suggerendum est ex Divino mandato intimandum Regiae Majestati ut Episcopium quod domus Episcopi appellatur Venerabiliter reverenter introeat c. It is to be declared and intimated to the Kings Majesty that he enter the Episcopium which is the House of the Bishop Reverently And not very long ago in the Raign of that Vertuous King Charles the first an Action of Battery being brought by Sir Francis Wortley Knight and Baronet against Sir Thomas Savile Knight afterwards Lord Savile and Earl of Sussex for assaulting and wounding him at Westminster Hall door one or both of them being then Parliament men the Jury gave a Verdict for Sir Francis Wortley with three thousand pounds Damages the Offence being aggravated to that height in regard that it was done so near or in the Face of the Court of Common Pleas the Judges then sitting which could have no greater or better reason for heigthning that offence then that it was done in that Ancient Palace of our Kings and the Place where the King Administred Justice to His People by His Judges who Represented His Authority in that their limitted Jurisdiction And but lately when sitting the Parliament in the moneth of December 1666 the Lord Saint John of Basing Eldest Son of the Marquess of Winchester being a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament had in Westminster Hall no Court of Justice then and there sitting pulled Sir Andrew Henly Knight by the Nose whereby he according to the opinion of Sir Edward Coke had forfeited his Lands Goods and Chattels although his reason offered for it that the offence was so punishable because it might tend ad impedimentum Justiciae to the hinderance of Justice was not alone sufficient for that it may more truly be understood to be propter venerationem loci for the Reverence and Respect due to the Kings House or Palace was so affrighted with the Penalty and consequence of that Offence as he procured the House of Commons who could not tell how to believe the unhappy heretofore unadvised and never to be proved Doctrine of the pretended Soveraignty of that House to go with their Speaker unto the King at Whitehall and intercede for his Pardon And shortly after at a Conference in the Painted Chamber betwixt the Lords and Commons in Parliament some hot words happening betwixt the Marquess of Dorchester and the Duke of Buckingham who upon the lye given him by the Marquess of Dorchester had pulled him by the Nose or plucked off his Peruque they were both Committed Prisoners to the Tower of London and within two days after upon their submission to the House of Peers Released but the Duke of Buckingham coming after to the Kings Court at Whitehall before he had asked leave of Him or His Pardon the King did forbid him the Court alleadging that howsoever the House of Peers in Parliament had pardoned him for the Offence Committed against them yet he had not forgiven him the Offence which he had Committed against him And in support of those Observations and honors so justly due unto the Place of His Royal Residences the Lord Chamberlain did lately cause a Constable to be Imprisoned for an Ignorant and Indiscreet pursuit of a French Lacquaie who had slain an Irish Foot-boy into Whitehal and as far as the Royal Lodgings of the Queen where he took him and shortly after deservedly Imprisoned one Mr. White a Merchant for bringing two of the Kings Marshals-men into the Privy-galleries and neer the Council-chamber-door the King sitting in Council bade them Arrest an Agent or Envoy of the Duke of Curlands and he would Indempnifie them Who were notwithstanding severely punished Which just and fitting observations due unto the Mansions of Kings and Princes Cromwel that Leader and Conductor of the Rable and Scumme of a Rebellious part of the people and grand contemner of all Authority but what himself had usurped and of all Ancient Orders Rites Customs and Usages did not think to be unbecoming that Eagles nest into which He and His devouring Harpyes had crept and the House wherein the Kings Honour lately dwelt when he Committed Sir Richard Ingoldsby then one of his Colonels but afterwards a Penitent and Loyal Subject of His Majesty that now is Prisoner to the Tower of London for striking one in the Stone-gallery at Whitehall And so unquestionable was a more then Common or Ordinary Honour and Respect to be given to the Houses and Courts of our Kings as some of our Ancient Nobility have by that honour which our Kings did Originally confer upon their Persons in the Grant of Earldoms and Honours gained by an Usage of Time and Custom some more then Common Priviledges to their Chief Houses Castles and Lands anciently belonging to their Earldoms So as their Lands belonging to their Earldoms have been exempted from the Contribution of the Wages of Knights of the Shire elected to be Parliament men and their Houses from any Search by any Constable or Ordinary Officer and in all or many of the Records or Memorials of the Kingdom have been frequently called or termed Honours as the Honours of Oxford Arundel Lincoln Leicester c. for the Lands belonging to those Earldoms and there is to this day a Custome at Arundel Castle that none but the Earl thereof the Soveraign and Heir apparent exempted
Liberties did commit to Prison one that had Arrested one of Her Servants without leave and the Creditor being shortly after upon his Petition released by the said Earl who blaming him for his contempt and misdemeanor therein and being answered by the Creditor that if he had known so much before hand he would have prevented it for that he would never have trusted any of the Queens Servants was so just as to inforce that Servant of the Queens to pay him presently or in a short time after the said debt And told him that if he did not thereafter take a better care to pay his Debts he would undo all the other of the Queens Servants for that no man would trust them but they would be constrained to pay ready money for every thing which they should have occasion to buy In the six and twentieth year of Her Reign Henry Seâ—kford Esq one of the Grooms of Her Majesties Privy Chamber being Complainant against William Cowper Defendant the Defendant was in open Court upon his Allegiance enjoyned to attend the said Court from day to day until he be otherwise Licenced and to stay and Surcease and no further prosecute or proceed against the Complainant in any Action at and by the Order of the Common Law And about the Seven and twentieth year of Her Reign some controversies arising betwixt the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and Sir Owen Hopton Knight Lieutenant of the Tower of London concerning some Liberties and Priviledges claimed by the Lieutenant and his refusal of Writs of Habeas Corpora and that and other matters in difference betwixt them being by Sir Thomas Bromley Knight Lord Chancellor of England the Earl of Leicester and other the Lords of the Council referred unto the consideration of Sir Christopher Wray Lord Chief Justice of the Queens Bench Sir Edmond Anderson Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Sir Gilbert Gerrard Knight Master of the Rolls they did upon hearing of both parties and their allegations Certifie under their hands that as concerning such Liberties which the Lieutenant of the Tower claimeth to have been used for the Officers and Attendants in the Tower some of them being of the Queens Yeomen of the Guard and wearing Her Livery Coates and Badges as they do now the Kings as not to be Arrested by any Action in the City of London and Protections to be granted unto them by the Lieutenant and his not obeying of Writs of Habeas Corpus They were of opinion that such Persons as are dayly Attendant in the Tower of London Serving Her Majesty there are to be Priviledged and not to be Arrested upon any plaint in London But for Writs of Execution or Capias Vtlagatum's which the Law did not permit without leave first asked the latter of which by the Writ it self brings an Authority in the Tenor and purport of it to enter into any Liberties but not specifying whether they intended any more than Capias Vtlegátum when it was only after judgement or such like they did think they ought to have no priviledge which the Lords of the Council did by an Order under their hands as rules and determinations to be at all Times after observed Ratifie and Confirm And our Learned King James well understanding how much the Weal Publick did Consist in the good Rules of Policy and Government and the support not only of His own Honor and just Authority but of the respects due unto his great Officers of State and such as were by him imployed therein did for the quieting of certain controversies concerning Precedence betwixt the younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons and the Baronets and others by an Ordinance or Declaration under the Great Seal of England In the tenth year of His Reign Decree and Ordain That the Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter the Privy Councellors of His Majestie His Heires and Successors the Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries the Chancellor and under Treasurer of the Exchequer Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Chief Justice of the Court commonly called the Kings Bench the Master of the Rolls the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas the Chief Baron of the Exchequer and all other the Judges and Barons of the degree of the Coife of the said Courts Now and for the Time being shall by reason of such their Honourable Order and Imployment have Place and Precedence in all Places and upon all occasions before the younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons and before all Baronets any Custom Vse Ordinance or other thing to the Contrary Notwithstanding In the four and thirtieth year of Her Reign Sir Christopher Wray Knight Lord Chief Justice of Her Court of Queens Bench Sir Edmond Anderson Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and the rest of the Judges of the aforesaid Courts seeming to be greatly troubled that divers Persons having been at several Times committed without good cause shewed and that such Persons having been by the Courts of Queens Bench and Common Pleas discharged of their Imprisonments a Commandment was by certain great Men and Lords procured from the Queen to the Judges that they should not do the like thereafter all the said Judges together with the Barons of the Exchequer did under their hands Exhibit unto the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Burghley Lord Treasurer of England their Complaint or Remonstrance in these words viz. We Her Majesties Justices of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer desire your Lordships that by some good means some Order may be taken that her Highness Subjects may not be Committed or detained in Prison by Commandment of any Noble Man or Counsellor against the Laws of the Realm either else to help us to have access unto her Majesty to the end to become Suitors unto Her for the same For divers have been imprisoned for Suing Ordinary Actions and Suits at the Common Law until they have been constrained to leave the same against their Wills and put the same to Order albeit Judgement and Execution have been had therein to their great losses and griefs For the aid of which persons her Majesties Writs have sundry Times been directed to sundry Persons having the custody of such Persons unlawfully Imprisoned upon which Writs no good or Lawful cause of Imprisonment hath been returned or Certified Whereupon according to the Laws they have been discharged of their Imprisonment some of which Persons so delivered have been again Committed to Prison in secret places and not to any Common or Ordinary Prison or Lawful Officer or Sheriff or other Lawfully Authorised to have or keep a Goal So that upon Complaint made for their delivery The Queens Courts cannot tell to whom to Direct Her Majesties Writs And by this means Justice cannot be done And moreover divers Officers and Serjeants of London have been many Times Committed to Prison for Lawful Executing of Her Majesties Writs Sued forth
to London about His Majesties special Service and that being performed to return without any their let molestation or Impediment The eighteenth of November 1626 in the case of Robert With and Susan His Wife who had Petitioned him for leave to take the benefit of His Majesties Laws against one Mr Burton and obteined his Lordships Order for their Relief therein if he gave them not satisfaction within three moneths after the sight thereof yet being after given to understand that the said Mr. Burton who was but a Surety and in that respect deserved some Commiseration had offered them very reasonable satisfaction which was refused his Lordship being desirous to understand the Nature of the debt with the qualities and reasons of Master Burtons offers and their refusal did refer the Examination thereof unto Sir Robert Rich and Sir Charles Caesar Knights two of the Masters of the Chancery to mediate an Accord betwixt them or otherwise to Certifie and Report the true state of the business betwixt them and in the mean time required them as they would answer the contrary at their peril that they forbear to make use of his former Order or any other whatsoever the which for that purpose he did utterly revoke and annihilate The three and twentieth of November 1626 being the second year of the Reign of that pious King Charles the Martyr John Durat and William Garnat were by the said Lord Chamberlains warrant apprehended by a Messenger of the Kings upon the complaint of Thomas Wadlow The sixth day of December in the same year the said Lord Chamberlain granted his Warrant for the apprehension of Henry Cartar Bayard a Serjeant and John Wright his Yeoman upon the complaint of Mr. Simpson the Queens Jeweller The ninteenth day of January in the same year Thomas Marten Haberdasher of London was by the like Authority apprehended at the Complaint of Captain Fortescue The eighth of May 1627 in the third year of His said Majesties Reign James Palmer of Leicester was by a like Warrant apprehended upon the complaint of Henry Stanford a Yeoman of the Guard The sixteenth of July 1627 a Warrant was granted by the said Lord Chamberlain to apprehend Francis Hawker a Cook and William Fulk Servant to Mr. Howard upon the Complaint of Joane Hewet whose husband being Servant to Mr. Boreman His Majesties Locksmith and employed by him in His Majesties Service was by them hurt and wounded The seventeenth of July 1627 the said Lord Chamberlain sent his Letter unto Mr. Atkinson for the respiting of an Order probably for a Licence to take his course at Law against one Mr. Thomas Wood until the end of Michaelmas Term 1627 withal advising him to forbear all further Prosecution against the said Master Wood or that he should hear further from his Lordship The fifteenth of September 1627 a Warrant signed by the said Lord Chamberlain was directed unto all Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs c. not to hinder or molest Dixi Hickman Esq Gentleman Usher to the Queen of Bohemia whilst he was here Imployed about Her Service The thirtieth of September 1627 a Warrant was granted by him for the apprehension of William Wiltshire Under Sheriff of Hampshire and Robert Prime aliâs Island a Bayliff upon the complaint of Sir George Hastings and being the tenth of November following thereupon committed to the Marshalseys and endeavouring to procure his release by an Habeas Corpus the said Lord Chamberlain Issued out another Warrant bearing Date the nine and twentieth of that November to detein him with Certificate that his first Commitment and that warrant for his Commitment was by his Majesties Special Commandment The twelfth day of October in the aforesaid year granted his Warrant for the apprehension of one Andrews a Constable of Petty France upon the complaint of one Ward Yeoman of the Guard The two and twentieth of January next following for the apprehension of Francis Foster and divers others for Arresting of John Smith His Majesties Girdler The tenth of March next following wrote his letter to the Lord Mayor Sheriffs and Recorder of York in the behalf of Robert Metham a sworn Messenger in Ordinary appointed to attend upon the Receiver of Yorkshire upon his Complaint for being there Arrested without leave In the year of our Lord 1628 granted his Warrant for the apprehension of Richard Harris Thomas Rosse of Leaden-hall-street London Merchants John Offley of Hampshire and a Servant to the Clerk of the Peace for Middlesex upon the Complaint of Francis de Champer Did write his letter to the Lord Mayor of London acquainting him with the Arrests and Imprisonments of Mr. George Morgan and others of his Majesties Servants and desired his Lordship to give notice to the Sheriffes of London and other Officers in London that they forbear to Arrest or Imprison His Majesties Servants without acquainting his Lordship therewith who promised upon such occasions to do Justice Grant a Warrant for the apprehension of Robert Armstrong for the Arresting of the Post Master of Saint Albans And the like to apprehend William Martin of Itham in the County of Kent upon the Complaint of Anthony Hobbes one of the Yeomen of the Guard for an Attachment of his Horse and a Warrant or Letter to discharge the Apprentices of the King and Queens Watermen from being Imprest for Sea Service in these words viz. Whereas I understand that some of the Apprentices and Servants of the King and Queens Water-men have lately been Imprest for His Majesties Service at Sea These are to require you Immediately upon the sight hereof to cause them to be released and discharged And that hereafter you forbear to Imprest them the said Water-men or their Servants they being Obliged unto a daily Attendance upon His Majesties Person and the Queens And for so doing this shall be your Warrant And the sixteenth day of February in the same year after His Majesties assent by Act of Parliament unto the Petition of Right which was the six and twentieth day of June in the year aforesaid upon an abuse committed upon the Persons of Mr. Nicholas Laneir and other His Majesties Servants in Ordinary by haling them to Prison in an unwarrantable and barbarous manner the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council amongst which was the Lord Keeper Coventrey did by their Letter to Sir Richard Deane then Lord Mayor of London greatly blame him for the permitting of the same in the words following viz. AFter our Hearty Commendations to your Lordship Whereas it is come to the knowledge of His Majesty and this Board that upon a light Affray or Breach of Peace fallen out in the Exchange wherein Master Nicholas Laneir and other His Majesties Servants in Ordinary mentioned in the Petiâ—ion which we send you inclosed happened to be interessed That the Constables and other Officers who came under pretense of Keeping the Peace did by colour of their Office notwithstanding they knew them to be His Majesties Servants in an unwarrantable
subjectionem Reverence and subjection and being then unarmed and his sword ungirt denoteth that he is never to be armed against or opposite to his Lord which by prosecuting or arresting any of his servants without leave he may well be deemed to do and in that faedere perpetuo as to them eternal league betwixt him and his Lord is not saith Bracton propter obligationem homagii by the obligation of his homage to do any thing quod vertatur domino ad exhaeredationem vel aliam atrocem injuriam which may turn to the disheriting of his Lord or other great injury which a sawcy and unmannerly arrest and haling of his servants to prison without licence first obtained hindring thereby his dayly and special service wherein his health safety and honor may be more than a little concerned endangered or prejudiced must needs by understood to be which if he shall do justum erit judicium quod amittat tenementum it will be just that he should lose his Land and our Writ of Cessavit per 〈◊〉 by which the Tenant if he perform not his services to his Lord within two years shall have his Land recovered against him redeemable only by paying the arrears of rents if any and undertaking to perform his services better for the future bespeaks the same punishment a certain conclusion will therfore follow upon these premisses that all such as did before the conversion of Tenures in socage hold the King their Lands immediately in Capite and by Knights service ought not to sue or molest any of his servants without license and although that inseparable Incident of the Crown and most Antient and noble Tenure of Chivalry and military service is now as much as an Act of Parliament can do it turned to the Plow or socage Tenure yet the fealty which is saith Sir Edward Coke included in every doing of homage which being done to a mesne Lord is always to have a Salva fide saving of the Tenants faith and duty to the King his heirs and Successors doth or should put all that are now so willing to hold by that tenure and to leave their Children and Estates to the greedy and uncharitable designs of Father-in-Laws under the conditions and obligations of fealty in mind or remembrance that by the fealty which they do or should swear unto the King and the oath of Allegiance which containeth all the Essential parts of homage and fealty which are not abrogated by that Act of Parliament for alteration of the Tenures in Capite and by Knights service into free common socage and the Oath of Supremacy to maintain and defend the Kings Rights Praeheminences and Jurisdictions cannot allow them that undutifull and unmannerly way of Arresting Molesting or Imprisoning any of the Kings Servants without leave or licence first had and that a Copyholder in Socage forfeits his Lands if he speak unreverent words of his Lord in the Court holden for the Mannor or goeth to any other Court wherely to intitle the Lord thereof to his Copyhold or doth replevin his Goods or Cattel upon a Distress taken by the Lord for his Rent or Service or refuse to be sworn of the Homage which in Copyhold Estates is not taken away by the Act of Parliament of 12 Car. Regis Secundi for the taking away of Homage upon Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service And where a Copyhold Tenant against whom a Recovery is bad cannot have a Writ of false Judgement he hath no other remedy but to petition the Lord to Reverse the Judgement nor can have an Assise against his Lord but may be amerced if he use contemptible words in the Court of the Mannor to a Jury or without just cause refuse to be of it that all the Lands of England are held immediately or mediately of the King that every Freeman of London besides the Oaths of Allegiâ—nce and Supremacy takes a particular Oath when he is made Free to be good true and obeysant to the King his Heirs and Successors and doth enjoy all the Liberties and Freedome of the City Trade and Companies by and under them And that they and all other Subjects his astricti Legibus which are under such Obligations cannot by their Homage Fealty Tenure of their Lands natural Ligiance under which they were born and Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy without violation of them and the hazard of their dreadfull consequences incroach upon those just and rational Rights and Priviledges of the Kings Servants confirmed by as many Acts of Parliament as our excellent Magna Charta of England hath been at several times after the making thereof at the granting of which King Henry the 3 d. took such care of his own Rights and Priviledges as by his Writ of Proclamation to the Sheriff of York wherein mention being made that he had granted to the people the Liberties mentioned in the Magna Charta which he would have to be observed he commanded him nevertheless that all his own Liberties and priviledges which were not specially mentioned and granted away in that Charter should be specially observed as they were used and accustomed in the times of his Auncestors and especially in the Raign of his Father King John For our allegiance due to the King being vinculâ—m arâ—tius a more strict tye betwixt the King and his Subjects ingaging the Soveraign to the Protection and just Government of his people and they unto a due Obedience and Subjection unto him by which saith the Custumary of Normandie â—i tenentur contra omnes homines qui mori possunt vivere proprii corporis praebere consilium adjuvamentum ei se in omnibus Innocuos exhibere nec ei adversantium partem in aliquo fovere to give him councel and aid against all men living and dying to behave themselves well towards him nor to take any ones part against him will leave such infringers of his Royal Rights and Piviledges inexcusable for the dishonour done unto him by Arresting Molesting or Imprisoning his Servants upon any Actions or Suit without leave or licence and at the same time when many of them do enjoy the Priviledges of HAMSOCNE a word and priviledge in use and practice amongst our Auncestors the Saxons or questioning and punishing of any that shall come into their House Jurisdiction or Territotory by the gifts grants or permission of the King or some of his Royal Progenitors deny or endeavour all they can to enervate the Rights and Liberties of him and his Servants when they may know that he and his Predecessors Kings and Queens of England have and ought to have an Hamsocne Ham in the Saxon Language signifying domus vel habitatio an house or habitation and Socne libertas vel immunitas a liberty immunity or freedom to question and punish any that shall invade the Liberties and Priviledges belonging to his House Palace and Servants vel aliquid aliud faciendum contra
untill it was by that prudent Prince restrained and limited to the Authority and Jurisdiction which it now enjoys was much more large and extensive than now it is and that of the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings House whose power and priviledge over that part of the Kings Servants which are under his Authority being exempt from that of the Lord Steward having been not by any Act of Parliament prohibited may not be thought to exceed the power and auâ—hority inherent in their Offices and places when they shall punish or commit to prison any who shall attempt to violate or infringe the honour and priviledges of the Kings House or Servants derived unto them from his Supreme Authority who having Ordinariam Jurisdictionem in regno suo pares non habet neque superiores an Ordinary and Supreme Jurisdiction and hath neither Peer nor Superior may as well protect his Servants in his affairs and business in his House or about his Person and punish any that shall hinder them therein as the Judges in his Courts of Justice who neither have or can claim any other power or authority than what he delegates or entrusteth them withall do upon all occasions in the Case of their Officers Clerks or menial Servants They therefore who shall so much suffer their reason and understanding to wander and be mislead as to deny the Kings most Honourable Privy Councell or any other Court within their Cognisance Power and Authority tueri Jurisdictionem such a coercive power as may support their Jurisdiction may think but never find they have any ground or cause for it and if they please to tarry for a conviction untill the never failing unhappy consequences shall bring them too late to acknowledge that which in viridi observantia by late abundant sad experiments is more then a little visible in the disorders of the present Church Government occasioned by the reverend Governors want of power who having their hands as it were tyed behind them are made to be as good old Ely admonishing and reproving to no purpose and how little the directive or commanding Power of Laws will signifie where the coercive shall be absent may bitterly repent it And will meet with as little reason to second or assist their opinion that a priviledged person imprisoned contrary to his priviledge is so in the custody of the Law as not to be able to claim or make use of his priviledge to release or discharge him when the frequent use of discharging men out of prison by Habeas Corpus Supersedeas or Writs of Priviledge and their Bayles or Sureties given for their appearances discharged And in matters of Parliament Priviledge can teach and prove the contrary for in the Case of Trewynniard a Burgess of Parliament in the Court of Kings-Bench in Easter and Trinity Term in the 38th year of the Raign of K. Henry the 8th the said Trewynniard was discharged by his Priviledge although he was arrested upon an Utlary after Judgement and the Judges of the Court of Kings Bench did adjudge and declare That every Priviledge is by prescription and every praescription which soundeth for the Common-weal is good although it be a prejudice to any private person And that such a priviledge hath been alwayes granted by the King to his Commoners at the request of their Speaker the first day of the sitting of Parliament And it is common reason that forasmuch as the King and all the Realm hath an interest in the Body of every of its Members it seemeth that the private commodity of any particular man ought not to be regarded for it is a maxime That magis dignum trahit ad se minus dignum the more worthy is to be preferred before the lesse and concluded That the Parliament is the most High Court and hath more Priviledges then any Court of the Realm and that in such a Case every Burgess is to be priviledged where the Action is but at the Suit of a Subject and that by such a temporary discharge the Execution is not discharged but remaineth When as men protected that were not the Kings Houshold Servants had their Protections allowed aâ—ter the commencement of the Action sometimes after Issue joyned at other times of the nisi prius or Triall at other times after the Verdict given and sometimes at the dayes in Banck and where any Defendant neither protected or priviledged was imprisoned he was not so believed to be in the Custody of the Law but that the Judges or any one Judge of the Court out of which the Process or Writ issued might not as well out of the Term as in the Term grant in their Subordinate Jurisdiction a Supersedeas quia improvià e or erronice emanavit because there was some Error or mistaking in the awarding or granting of the Writ by which he was taken And those Authentique Books of the Register of Writs old and new Book of Entries and the presidents therein contained will sufficiently testifie that arrests of priviledged persons and the goods or persons of priviledged persons have been and ought to be discharged from Attachments Arrests and Imprisonments and that which they would call the Custody of the Law by Habeas Corpus Supersedeas or Writs of priviledge and their Bayles or Sureties given for their Appearances discharged But however the pride and disrespectfull and disobedient humors of too many of our Nation be now so much in fashion as to quarrell with every thing of Authority and the Regalities of their Soveraign the dayes of old and Ages past will evidence that the before mentioned Priviledges of the Kings Servants in Ordinary were for ought appears to the contrary believed to be so legall and reasonable CHAP. VIII That the aforesaid Priviledge of the Kings Servants in Ordinary hath been legally imparted to such as were not the Kings Servants in Ordinary but imployed upon some temporary and casuall affairs abroad and out of the Kings House AS it was desired and thought fit and necessary to be communicated to such as were not the Kings Servants in Ordinary or his Domesticks but only imployed as extraordinaries upon some of his special affairs or occasions which were but Temporary and to that end it was requisite that some signification or notice should be given that they were so imployed and that they should not be arrested imprisoned or disturbed in it but be protected from it the like being also done when any of the Kings Servants in Ordinary where imployed out of the Kings House or Pallace by their Writs of Protection under the great Seal of England for otherwise probably it would not have been known that they were his Servants either ordinary or extraordinary or what was their business And therefore in the Register of Writs a Book in the Statute of Westminster the second made in the 13th year of the Reign of K. Edward the first in the year of our Lord 1285 called the Register of the Chancery
of King Henry the sixth the Commons in Parliament were so unwilling that their own concernments should hinder any of the Kings affairs as they did petition him That John Lord Talbot purposing to serve the King in his Warrs in France a Protection with the Clausa volumus might be granted unto him for a year and that by Parliament it might be ordained that it it be without the exception of Novel disseisin and to be put under the Great Seal of England with other Immunities whilst he be so in the Kings service which the King granted Provided that the said John Lord Talbot and Margaret his Wife Edward Earl of Dorset and others named should not enter upon any Lands whereof James Lord Barkly and Sir William Barkley his son were seised the first day of that Parliament or bring any Action concerning the same And so little desired the heretofore too powerfull Clergie of England to extend their power where they legally and inoffensively might do it CHAP. XIII That the Clergy of England in the height of their Pride and Superlative Priviledges Encouragements and Protection by the Papal over-grown Authority did in many cases lay aside their Thunderbolts and power of Excommunications appeals to the Pope and obtaining his Interdictions of Kingdomes Churches and Parishes and take the milder modest and more reverential way of petitioning our Kings in Parliaments rather than turn the rigors of their Canon or Ecclesiastical Laws or of the Laws of England against any of the Kings Officers or Servants AS they did in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the third although by the Statute made in the 28th year of the Reign of King Edward the first making some Actions and Injuries which they then complained of to be Felony they might without their petitioning in Parliament have had ample and easie remedies petition the King in Parliament against some grievances and oppressions done by some of the Kings Servants to people of holy Church by his Purveyors and Servants amongst which were the abuses done by his Purveyors in taking the Corn Hay Beasts Carriage and other goods of the Arch-bishops Bishops Parsons and Vicars without the agreement and good will of the Owners and did thereupon obtain the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England which in the Parliament Roll is called a Statute and is as an Act of Parliament printed among the Acts of Parliament did declare That he took them and their possessions into the especial Protection of him and his Heirs and Successors and that they should not be any more so charged nor to receive into their houses Guests nor Sojourners of Scotland nor of other Countreys nor the Horses nor Dogs Faulcons nor other Hawks of the Kings or others against their will saving to the King the services due of right from them which owe to the King the same services to sustain and receive Dogs Horses or Hawks In a Parliamant in the first year of the Reign of King Richard the second although divers Laws in force had provided them remedies of course which needed no petitioning they did petition the King That they were upon every temporal suggestion arrestâ—d into the Marshalsea and paid for their discharge 6 s. 8 d. where a Layman payeth only 4 s. unto which the King did answer Let the party grieved complain to the Steward of the household and they shall have remedy And did in that but follow the patterns of Loyalty Prudence and self preservation cut out and left unto all true hearted Englishmen by their worthy and pious Ancestors and Predecessors who when the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service which obliged all the Nobility and many thousands of the best part of the Gentry to follow their Prince to his Warrs abroad or defend him and his honour at home did in their duty to him and the care of their own estates and concernments with their numerous well-wishing and dutifull Tenants attending them follow him into the Warrs and Voyages Royal and remained there by the space of forty dayes at their own charges and afterwards as long as they lasted at the the Kings which must needs be a great obstruction to many mens Action or the recovery of their Debts or Rights and much better understand that universal Axiom and Rule of the Laws of Nature Necessity and Nations then the late ill advised Lord Mayor and some Citizens of London did who in the late dreadfull fire in the year of our Lord 1666. did to save the pulling down of a few houses to prevent the fury of a most dire and dismal fire and not a seventh part of their goods did see but too late the necessity of pulling down some houses and when they might have endeavoured it would allow it to be warrantable by the Lord Mayors order but not the Kings and in that fond dispute and his Timidity most imprudently suffer and give way to the burning down of many thousand houses and converting into ashes almost all that once great and flourishing City that privata cedere debent publicis every mans private affairs were to be laid aside and give place to the publick being the best way of self preservation And did not as they would do now rush upon Arrest or Imprison either the Kings Servants or such as were imployed by him or unto whom he had granted his Writs of Protection without asking leave of him but with a modesty and reverence becoming Subjects plicate him for a Revocation or if they did not or could not purchase it that way did sometimes become Petitioners in Parliament for some regulations in Protections granted upon some special and temporary imployments to such as were not his Servants in ordinary not for a total abolition or to take away that part of the Kings Prerogative in order to the Government and their own well being the answers whereunto shewed as much care in the King and his Councel as might be to give them content and satisfaction and at the same time not to depart from or lessen the Rights of the Crown more than was meerly necessary or in grace or savour for that particular time occasion or grievance to be granted or remitted unto them And no less carefull were the Judges in former ages in their delegated Courts and proceedings in Justice to pay their respects to the service of the King and likewise to his Servants or any other imployed therein CHAP. XIV That the Judges in former times did in their Courts and proceedings of Law and Justice manifest their unwillingness to give or permit any obstruction to the service of the King and Weal Publique WHen Bracton declares the Laws and Usage of the Kingdome to be in the Reign of King Henry the third and King Edward the first that Warrantizatur Essonium multipliciter quandoque per breve Domini Regis ubi non est necessitas jurare cum Dominus Rex hoc testatur per literas suas quod
same time consider the damage which our Kings have suffered by their Grants to divers Abbeys as amongst others unto the Abbey of St. Edmonds-Bury in Suffolk which in a Plea betwixt that Abbot and the Bishop of Ely and his Steward in the sixth Year of the Reign of King Richard the First appeared by the Charters of King Edward the Confessor William the Conqueror and King Henry the First to be in general words all the Liberties which any King of England might grant the very large Priviledges of Common of Pasture and Estovers the later of which hath spoiled much of the Timber of the Kingdom in many vast Forrests and Chases their many deafforrestations and that of three Hundreds at once in the County of Essex at the Request and Petition of an Earl of Oxford their taking their Customs and Duties upon Merchandize Exported or Imported at small and priviledged Rates and manner of payment of Tonnage and Poundage and by the granting away of so many Franchises Exemptions Priviledges view of Frank Pleg and Liberties which the Commons in Parliament in the one and twentieth Year of the Reign of King Edward the Third thought to be so over-largely granted as they complained That almost all the Land was Enfranchised and Petitioned That no Franchise-Royal Land Fee or Advowson which belong or are annexed to the Crown be given or severed from it And so very many more Immunities Franchises and Priviledges which since have been indulged and granted to very many of the People which like the dew of the heavenly Manna which so plentifully covered the Camp of the Children of Israel and lay round about them have blessed many of the English Nation and their after Generations as the dew of Hermon and that which descended upon the Mountains of Zion And so many were those exemptions customs prescriptions and immunities Quae longi temporis usu recepta quaeque ratio vel necessitas suaserit introducenda rata stabilita fuerinâ— quasi tanto tempore principis consensu Judâ—cioque probata Which by a long accustomed use introduced by reason or necessity as the Learned Baldus saith concerning those which by the Civil Law and the Law of Nations have as approved by the consent and Judgment of the Prince been ratified and permitted as they would if faithfully and diligently collected as my worthy Friend Mr. Tho. Blount hath done very many of them in his Learned and laborious Nomo Lexicon not onely put Posterity in mind how very many and almost innumerable they are and how much they ought to be thankful for them but that their Forefathers did without any the least doubt or scruple believe that the Kings and Princes which granted them had power enough to do it And ought not to have their ways or passages stopped or blocked up by those Opinions of Sir Edward Coke and the rest of the Judges in contradiction of the late Learned Doctor Bancroft Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the case of Prohibitions argued and debated before King James and his Privy Council and Council Learned in the Law in Michaelmas Term in the fifth Year of his Reign that Rex non Judicat in Camera sed in Curia the King is to decide and determine the Causes and Controversies of his Subjects in his assigned and Commissionated Courts of Justice but not out of them or in his Palace Court or Chamber nor take any Cause out of his Courts and give Judgment upon it and that no King after the Conquâ—st ever assumed to himself to give Judgment in any Cause whatsoever which concerned the administration of Justice within the Realm and that the King cannot delay Justice or Arrest any Man neither Arrest any Man for suspicion of Treason or Felony as other of His Lieges may Wherein the Men of new Notions who in the Itch and Hope of Gain or the good will and applause of a Factious Party can like the after hated Ephori of Sparta upon all occasions oppose the Kings legal Rights and Prerogatives and thinking to satisfie others as well as themselves in making ill-warranted matters of Fact the Directors or Comptrollers of the Law may suspend their adoration of those Errors in that so called twelfth Report of Sir Edward Coke which being published since his Death have not that candor or fair dealing of Plowden's Commentaries or the Reports of the Lord Dyer or many other of his own Reports but concealing the Arguments and Reasons urged by the Opponents doth onely give us a Summary of his own and the other Judges Opinions which we hope may vanish into a mistake and meet with no better entertainment from those Reverend Judges and Sages of the Law if they were now in the Land of the Living to revise and examine those Opinions so Dogmatically delivered then a Retractation or Wish that they had never seen the Light or walked in the view of the Vulgar and advise those who would gladly make them the Patroni of so many ill Consequences as either have or may follow upon such Doctrines to build upon better Foundations and not to adhere so much unto them or any others though they should be willing to seem to be as wise therein as Socrates or Plato but rather subscribe to the Truth CHAP. XX. That the power and care of Justice and ihe distribution thereof is and hath been so essential and radical to Monarchy and the Constitution of this Kingdom as our Kings of England have as well before as since the Conquest taken into their Cognizance divers Causes which their established Courts either could not remedy or wanted power to determine have remoued them from other Courts to their own Tribunals and propria authoritate caused Offenders for Treason or Felony to be Arrested and may upon just and legal occasions respite or delay Justice WHen the King is Author omnis Jurisdictionis the Author of all Jurisdiction which is the specifica forma virtus essentialis Regis qua se nequit abdicare quamdiu Rex est neque vis illa summae ditionis potestatis Regiae dignitate citra pernitiâ—m ejus interitum separari distrahique potest Speciâ—ick form and essence of Kingly Majesty which the King cannot alienate or depart from as long as he is King nor may that Jurisdiction or supream Power be severed from the Regal Dignity without the ruine or destruction of the King as Mr. Adam Blackwood a Scotchman hath very well declared in his Book against Buchanan his Learned more than Loyal Countrey-man concerning the Magistracy Lords of Sessions and Judges in Scotland That all Judges and Magistrates Ne in Civilibus quidem causis nullam nisi munere beneficioque Regis sententiae dicendae nullam Juris judiciorum potestatem habent derived even in Civil Causes all their power and authority from the Kings Authority and without it had no power to give a Sentence or Judgment quicquid enim Magistratuum est quicquid judicium
suos ibidem et ad assignand ' Justic ' per Commissionem et ad Error ' corrigend per ipsum Episco pum vel alios Justiciar suos tam ad sectam Domini Episcopi quam aliorum praediâ—tus Willielmus replicavit quod non esset consonum rationi se ipsum de facto prosecutione proprijs fore Judicem cum proprie ad Regiam Majestatem in omnibus Causis ortis inter subditos Jurisdictio pertinet dinoscere et licet ad aliquam Personam per privilegium speciale de causa cognoscere indultum fuit si substitutus in exhibitione Justitiae defecerit Errorem per superiorem et non per substitut ' corrigi debet et super hoc dati sunt dies de termino in terminum To which he pleaded that no Writs were delivered to him at Durham and to that which was delivered unto him at Waltham he had returned that he is Count Palatine and Lord of the Royalty of the Lands called the Bishoprick of Durham and hath all the Rights and Regalities which do belong unto a Count Palatine and that Royalty there to be exercised by him and his Ministers and Justices that is to say hath a Coroner Chancellor and Court of Chancery and that the Kings Officers do not in any thing intermeddle therein and that the said Bishop as Count Palatine hath there likewise his Court and Justices of Common-Pleas as well real as personal and power to assign by Commission Justices to correct and reverse Errors committed by him or any of his Justices as well at his own Suit as others Unto which the said William replyed That it was not reason that he should be Judge of his own Actions when as properly it belonged to the Majesty of a King to determine of all Causes betwixt his Subjects And although he in favour granted to some Person a special priviledge to hear and determine Causes yet if any substituted by him do fail in the distribution of Justice the Errors shall be corrected by the Superior and not by the Substitutes whereupon further days were given from Term to Term. Nor was the Duties of Subjects so worn out but that so much respect was in those better Times given to our Kings Royal Protections granted to such as were not employed by them as the Laws and reasonable Customs oâ— England did allow the protected Persons in their Lands and Estates to bring their Actions against the Infringers or Disturbers thereof as in the Case of Roger de Limecote against the Sheriff of Liecester in the first year of the Reign of King Richard the First for disseising him of two Knights Fees Nicholas Talbot against William Prior of Dunstar in the eight and thirtieth year of the Reign of King Edward the Third of Walter Warr against Gervase Wretchey and John Parkey in the same year and of many others in the said Kings Reign and no Pleas in Bar or alledging Illegality put into the same but in others some collateral Pleas and Defences made by Releases or the like For those Lovers of their Countrey and honor of their Kings did not think as some would fondly and untruly assert that all the Royal Protections granted by them had at the first no better an Original or Foundation than an Imitation of the many Protections and Priviledges granted by our Kings and Princes to Bishops Monasteries and Religious Houses did not believe that our Kings could not respite for a while the payment of moneys due unto any of their Subjects or do as much as amounted to it when King Edward the Third in his Wars with France and great want of Moneys did about the thirteenth year of his Reign revoke divers Assignations for the payment of Moneys due unto private and particular persons until he should be better enabled to pay them And it was about the twelfth Year of the Reign of King James in the Grand Case of Boltons Complaint against the Lord Chancellor Ellesmeere adjudged in Parliament That upon a Bill called A Bill of Conformity exhibited in Chancery by a Debtor against his Creditors for not accepting of his Offer of as much satisfaction as he was able to give them and for refusing thereupon to permit him to enjoy his liberty the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England might by Injunctions prohibit and stay all Suits at the Common Law commenced by him or any such refractory Creditors For our Courts of Chancery Kings-Bench Common-Pleas and Exchequer have in their several subordinate Authorities not seldom mitigated and reduced the high and unreasonable Fines incertain demanded by divers Lords of Manors of their Copy-hold Tenants for their Admissions unto a more reasonable Rate of two years improved Value and enforced them to accept it And Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon Magna Charta would not bring into the meaning of the Clause of Nulli negabimus vel differemus Justiciam That the King would not deny or delay Justice such Protections as do appear in the Register and are warranted by the Books of Law And although in the eighth year of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth it was in transitu and by the way said by Cottesmore a Judge in the Case concerning the Priviledges of the University of Oxford That the King cannot grant that a man shall not Implead or have any Action against another Yet it was at the same time declared to be Law and right Reason by Babington a Judge That to a Lord of a Manor Conusance of all Trespasses done within his Lordship may be granted by the King and that a Plaintiff shall be bound to bring his Action accordingly and that in that Case the King hath not fore-closed him of his Action so as our Novelists and such as invent all the Oppositions they can against the just and legal Authority of their Sovereigns may do better to acknowledge that howsoever it was the opinion of some of the Judges in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth That if any should Arrest a man by the Kings Command when all men Arrested are so by the Authority of the King and his Writs or Process an Action of False Imprisonment might be brought against him that obeyed the Kings Command although it was done in the presence of the King Yet the whole Tenor and Meaning of that Case and that sudden Opinion arguendo or by way of instance deliver'd thereupon was no more but that such a Command ought to be attended with some Specialty or cause shewed And so little did the Judges of the Court of Kings-Bench in Trinity Term in the ninth year of the Reign of King Henry the Fifth intend or think it fit to subject to the humor of any froward or undutiful person the important Affairs and Service of the King As William Reedhead and Nicholas Hobbesson Purveyors for the King having taken forty Quarters of Malt for the Kings use for the Victualling