Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which the Statute in England placed in the See of Canterbury are become English Archbishops And with the like way of reasoning he would infer that Acts of Recognition in England are of no Force in Ireland till the Irish have recognized the same King and yet confesses That whoever is King of England is ipso facto King of Ireland and the Subjects are obliged to obey him as their Leige Lord That they in Ireland are so annexed to England that the Kings and Queens of England are by undoubted Right ipso facto Kings and Queens of Ireland To use Mr. M's own Expression I am sure there 's an end of all Speech if he does not confess that a Prince rightfully possest of the English Throne is thereby King of Ireland before any Recognition made by a Parliament there and yet not withstanding this generous Concession he immediately subjoins And from hence we may reasonably conclude that if any Acts of Parliament made in England should be of force in Ireland before they are receiv'd there in Parliament they should be more especially such Acts as relate to the Succession and Settlement of the Crown and Recognition of the King's Title thereto and the Power and Jurisdiction of the King And yet we find in the Irish Statutes 28 H. 8. c. 2. An Act for the Succession of the King and Queen Ann. And another c. 5. declaring the King to be supreme Head of the Church of Ireland Both which Acts had formerly pass'd in the Parliament of England So likewise we find amongst the Irish Statutes Acts of Recognition of the King's Title to Ireland in the Reigns of H. 8. Queen Elizabeth King Charles 2. K. William and Q. Mary by which it appears that Ireland tho annexed to the Crown of England has always been look'd upon to be a Kingdom compleat within it self and to have all Jurisdiction to an absolute Kingdom belonging and subordinate to no Legislative Authority on Earth Tho 't is to be noted those English Acts relating to the Succession and Recognition of the King's Title do particularly name Ireland Before I enter into the enquiry how this can be made consistent with a Kingship ipso facto before the Recognition in Ireland 't will be requisite to inform him that we have had Settlements of the Crown by Acts of Parliament here which never were formally received by any Parliament in Ireland and yet such Act of Parliament here has ever been held to bind Ireland tho 't was not expresly named and that tho the Settlement has carried the Crown from the elder Branch of the Royal Family for instance 7 H. 4. at the request of the Lords and Commons in Parliament 't was enacted That the Inheritance of the Crown and of the Realms of England and France and of all other the King's Seigniories or Lordships beyond Sea with the appurtenances be put and remain in the Person of the said King and the Heirs of his Body issuing and 't was ordain'd established pronounced expressed and declared that Prince Henry the King 's eldest Son be Heir apparent to succeed him in the said Crown Realms and Seigniories to have them with all their Appurtenances after the King's decease to the Prince and the Heirs of his Body with Remainders over to the King 's 2 d and 3 d Sons and the Heirs of their respective Bodies successively And according to this Form 1 H. 7. 't was ordain'd established and enacted by Authority of Parliament that the Inheritances of the Crowns of the Realms of England and France with all the preheminence and dignity Royal to the same appertaining and all other Seigniories belonging to the King beyond Sea with the Appurtenances in any manner due to them or appertaining do stand and remain in the most noble Person of their said Sovereign Lord H. 7. and the Heirs of his Body lawfully issuing for ever with the Grace of God to endure and in no other Persons Not to trouble Mr. M. with an enquiry whether these or any other Acts of Parliament in England of former Reigns united Ireland to England otherwise than as they declared their intention for that Seigniory or Dominion to go along with the Government of England or what Act of Parliament in Ireland since the first submission to H. 2. created an Annexation of the Land of Ireland to the Crown of England I must entreat him to explain How it should come to pass that the King of England ipso facto by his being made King here is King of Ireland and yet that those Acts of Parliament here by which the King is declared King without and against a strict courst of descent are of no force till the King is recognized by Act of Parliament in Ireland If a King of England as such is ipso facto King of Ireland is he not so before any Act of Recognition there And if so what can that or other Acts repeating the Laws made in England signify more than a full publication of what was the Law before If the Election or Declaration of a King by a Parliament in England gives a Law in this matter to Ireland and such a King is to be obey'd by virtue of that Law ipso facto before he is received and acknowledged by a Parliament in Ireland do their subsequent Recognitions in the least infer that Ireland is a compleat Kingdom Is it any better than a Contradiction to hold that a King of England as created or declared in a Parliament of England is thereby or at the same instant King of Ireland and yet that Ireland is a Kingdom so compleat in it self that he is no King till the Act of Parliament creating or declaring him King is confirm'd by a Parliament in Ireland Or take it the other way No Act of Parliament in England is of any force till confirmed in Ireland and yet a King declared by a Parliament of England tho he was not King before such declaration is thereby or ipso facto King of Ireland that is an Act of Parliament of England is not of force in Ireland till confirm'd there and yet 't is of force ipso facto by the being enacted here Does it not therefore follow that such an annexation of Ireland to the Crown of England as makes the King of England ipso facto King of Ireland destroys the supposition that their Parliaments have Authority to confirm or reject Laws made by the Legislature in England Or otherwise that the supposition of such an Authority in the Parliament of Ireland destroys that annexation which Mr. M. himself yields Further yet 't will appear that even after a Parliament of Ireland had as far as it could annex'd that Land as a Kingdom to the Imperial Crown of England an Annexation here was requisite for the ratifying what had been done in Ireland Therefore 34 and 35 H. 8. an Act was made by the Parliament of England for
THE History and Reasons OF THE Dependency of IRELAND UPON THE Imperial Crown OF THE Kingdom of ENGLAND Rectifying Mr. Molineux's State of the Case of Ireland's being bound by Acts of Parliament in England Actum erat de foecundissimâ gente Si libera fuisset Plin. Panegyr LONDON Printed for Dan. Brown at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple-Bar and Ri. Smith at the Angel without Lincolns-Inn Gate near the Fields 1698. To the Honourable the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled YOur House and they to whose Rights You succeed having for several Ages been the Principal Support of the English Monarchy the Enemies to so excellent a Constitution have thought it could never be more effectually undermined than by the drawing your Rights into Question and thus have many made 〈◊〉 their deceitful Courts to Princes 'T is not for me to determine whether Malice or Sycophantry have induced some to deny your being in any manner invested with that Authority which they officiously ascribe to the Kings of this Realm and their Council of Lords or rather Privy Council to the derogating from the Lords in Parliament no less than from You. I conceive it allowable for me to joyn the Men of this assurance with Dr. Brady and other Advocates for Despotick Power who have contended that your first Presence or Representation in the National Council began by Rebellion in the 49. of H. 3. which being taken as proved they conclude that Kings may as well set you aside as a Subject may any obligation extorted by threats and duress And whoever has made any attempt towards the removing that Corner Stone for Tyranny has been sure to incur the imputation of promoting Anarchy as if your venerable Body did not in the least interpose between those two Extremes The fairest colour which the Men of Foreign Notions and Allegiance have for their premises is from King John's Charter which as they imagine has declared or establish'd the Tenents of the Crown in Chief to be the only legal Members of the Common Council of the Kingdom the far different sense of which Charter I may well say 't was my fortune to find and evince upon my first enquiry into the Nature of our Government since the force of truth has obliged even Dr. Brady to yield it up to me after all the hard Words which he had given me on that occasion Nor has he offered the least Shadow of Evidence against my List from Domesday Book shewing that notwithstanding the supposed Conquest of this Land by W. 1. they who had not forfe ted their Estates enjoyed them upon or under Titles Priour to his Entrance without relation to any Grant or Confirmation from him Permit me to say that the Researches in which this Controversy engaged me have in some measure enabled me to assert your Authority in the highest Instances of the exercise of Power aud to make out by Deduction and numerous Presidents what you have as 't were by Intuition that Ireland as 't is annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom is subjected to that Authority which is and must be absolute and yet can never be gaievous because of your share in it Tho the bold denial of this has already receiv'd your just censure of being of dangerous Consequence to the Crown and People of England Yet if I may use the Allusion I might observe that 't is not held improper to make Comments upon the Sacred Text to explain it to Vulgar Understandings Which I should hope may plead in my Excuse if not Justification while I am proving that as you have rightfully concurred with the Lords in giving Ireland a King by filling the Vacant Throne and that Glorious Preserver of your Liberties has with the Advice and Consent of the States of this his Realm made Laws with a declared intention of binding Ireland these Acts of Sovereignty are not only agreeable to the Laws of Nature and of Nations but warranted by the Ancient Constitution of this Monarchy The foundation of which while I have been labouring to clear from that Rubbish which would render it unstable it has happened with me as with those who having exhausted themselves in working a rich Mine are forced to leave the bright Oar to them that come after And thus 't is likely to be with those Collections which I have by me concerning the Fundamental Constitution of this Government by which I had flattered my self that I must have contributed towards the Peace and Happiness of my Country in shewing the admirable Harmony that there is between the constituent parts of this Empire how strong and beautiful they are in their due order How conspicuous that Degree of the Baronage or Nobility of Engl. which you 're present has been in all the Ages of this Monarchy in maintaining its Glory what Persuasive Reasons both Prince and People have to be satisfied with their several and yet common Interests and how little they are to be thought Friends to either who prompt them as the Learned Grotius has it In partem non suam involare Whither I have been any way serviceable to the Publick or can yet serve it according to my Zeal is submitted to the Collective Wisdom of the Nation The Judgment is with you who if you should not think this or any of my former labourous Effects of Idleness as the Poet calls the Writing of Books worthy of your Protection or Notice I doubt not will extend your Pardon to Endeavours consecrated to your use By Your Most Faithful and Affectionate Humble Servant W. Atwood The History and Reasons of the Dependency of Ireland upon the Imperial Crown of the Kingdom of England c. AS there 's no need of staying for Publick Authority or Encouragement to oppose an open Invasion upon the Rights of my Country I cannot but think it my duty to make a stand till better help come in with Arms taken up on a sudden and that the rather since by a shew of Precedents and popular Positions some lovers of English Liberties are drawn in to join with the Invaders nor do I wonder to find Sufferers under Arbitrary Reigns easy to be misled by a seeming Advocate for mankind who undertakes the Cause of the whole Race of Adam And yet to any man who will be at the least pains to think of Consequences 't will be manifest that the Liberty which the Gentleman whom I oppose contends for as the inherent Right of all mankind would be a total exemption from all Laws and Government except such as Adam had a right to in the state of Nature and for want of knowing who has the title of Descent from him would turn all Nations to such Commonwealths wherein every Paterfamiliâs is an independent Soveraign If men were to be considered in such a state I will agree with him That on whatsoever ground any one Nation can challenge Liberty to themselves
on the same reason may the rest of Adam's Children expect it But if this be taken with relation to the present Governments in the world then suppose this Gentleman hold a Commonwealth to be the freest state of mankind to be uniform he must believe that no Monarchies ought to continue longer than the people should think fit because according to his Maxim the People of a Monarchy have the same right to Liberty that the others maintain and directly to the present question no nation ought to have any dependence upon any other Nation And perhaps others will say neither ought they to have any protection 'T is certain that whether we consider the people of the same Nation or the relation which one Nation has to another their state or condition must depend upon Constitutions and Agreements express or tacit Indeed what Constitutions and Agreements are binding and for what time will fall under the consideration of Reason either of it self or aided and assisted by Revelation S. Paul having taught us That the Powers that are are ordained of God I should think that the common practice of the world which this Gentleman admits to be against his Notions is no small evidence of the right of Acquisitions made by one Nation upon or over another But if these could in right be carried no further than the damage sustained by the injured Nation the bounds of the Acquisitions would be very uncertain and desultory That no true Principle opposes the Power which England claims and exercises over Ireland might be shewn in a very narrow compass Yet when many glittering Arguments are made use of to support an unseasonable as well as groundless complaint it may be requisite to give direct Answers to those things which may seem most plausible and to lay such Foundations as may supersede the particular consideration of the rest to which end I shall shew 1. The nature of Mr. Molineux his Complaint 2. The true Foundation and Nature of that Right of which England is possessed in relation to Ireland and Mr. Molineux's Mistakes Omissions and wrong Comparisons and Inferences concerning it 3. That the Right which was at first acquired is so far from being departed from that 't is rather strengthened and confirmed and has been duly exercised as the good of England has required and in subordination to that and even in the greatest Instances now complained of 4. That his Politicks and seeming popular Notions are wrong and misapplied 1 st Mr. Molineux would insinuate into his Majesty's belief in his Dedication to him that some of late endeavour to violate those Rights and Liberties which the Irish or English there have enjoyed for above five hundred years And he plainly enough charges both Kings Lords and Commons of England and that acting Parliamentarily not only with this endeavour but with actual violations of that which to him seems the inherent Right of all mankind His Service to his Country and to all the Race of Adam he supposes to be call'd for by the present juncture of Affairs when the business of Ireland is under the consideration of both Houses of the English Parliament that is as his Margin explains it the Case of the Bishop of Derry in the House of Lords and the prohibiting the exportation of the Irish Woollen Manufacture in the House of Commons He complains That Acts of Parliament in England before the 10 th of H. 4. and 29 th of H. 6. had pretended to bind Ireland without any confirmation there tho they have not expresly claim'd this Right that there are modern Precedents of English Acts of Parliament pretending to bind Ireland but these are Innovations tho of his own shewing no more than was done before the 10 th of H 4. But he is sorry to reflect that since the late Revolution in these Kingdoms when the Subjects of England have more strenuously than ever asserted their own Rights and the Liberties of Parliaments it has pleased them to bear harder on their poor Neighbours than has ever yet been done in many Ages foregoing The first attempt which this Gentleman complains of since his Majesty's happy accession to the Throne of these Kingdoms is an Act made in great compassion for Relief of the Protestant Irish Clergy The next is one prohibiting all Trade and Commerce with France while England was engaged in an actual War of which Ireland was a miserable Seat Another is the Act for the better security and relief of their Majesties Protestant Subjects in Ireland wherein K. James's Irish Parliament at Dublin and all Acts and Attainders done by them are declared void And 't is further provided That no Protestant shall suffer any Prejudice in his Estate or Office by reason of his absence out of Ireland since December 25. 1685. And that there should be a remittal of the King's Quit-Rent from Decemb. 25. 1688. to the end of the War And the last is That for abrogating the Oath of Supremacy in Ireland and appointing other Oaths These are the Acts of Parliament by the suppos'd submission to which he will have it that the Rights of the People of Ireland have received the greatest weakening under his Majesty's Reign and they are made of all his Majesty's Subjects the most unfortunate These Acts are complained of as Violations of the Rights of a Kingdom compleat and absolute in it self without any subordination to England especially in relation to Parliaments That they are contrary to that amity which should be maintained between distinct Kingdoms or the Children of one common Parent which have distinct Rights and Inheritances absolutely within themselves and inconsistent with the Royalties and Preeminence of a separate and distinct Kingdom Against the common Laws of England which are in force both in England and Ireland by the original Compact Against the Statute Laws both of England and Ireland Against several Charters of the Liberties granted to Ireland Against the King's Prerogative Against the practice of all former Ages Against several Resolutions of the learned Judges of former times Destructive of Property Introductive of the greatest confusion and uncertainty imaginable And lastly inconvenient for England being likely to make the Lords and People of Ireland think they are not well used and may drive them into discontent And yet this Complaint must be thought very modest because if the Great Council of England shall resolve the contrary he declares he shall then believe himself to be in an Error and with the lowest submission ask pardon for his assurance I cannot in the least question but that august and wise Assembly will use that Method which he refers to for his Conviction yet since they are employed in Affairs of more immediate consequence than the asserting and clearing the grounds of that Authority which they have long been possessed of I shall think that I may
do some service to my Country in shewing 2 ly The true Foundation of that Right which England is possessed of in relation to Ireland and what are Mr. Molineux's principal Mistakes Omissions and wrong Comparisons and Inferences concerning it Here I hope to make it evident 1. That he mistakes the Grounds for the submission of Ireland to H. 2. as well as the Nature of it and omits material Passages which may illustrate that matter 2. That if he had been as conversant in Histories and Records as he would be thought he could never have had assurance enough to assert that England may be said much more properly to be conquer'd by W. 1. than Ireland by H. 2. 3. That he is as much mistaken in his comparison between Scotland and Ireland and that matter of his own shewing or admission might have convinced him of an essential difference 1. This Gentleman pretends to give the History of the Expedition of the English into Ireland which he supposes to have been in the Reign of H. 2. and that all the Right which has been acquired by England to have any Government or Superiority over that Nation was derived from within that King's Reign Which manifests his having seen very little of our English Antiquities and his not attending to what Irish Acts of Parliament might have taught him The Confessor's Law under the Title of the Rights and Appendages or Dependencies of the Crown of England expresly names Ireland as one which it supposes to have been first annexed to the Crown of England by King Arthur Accordingly besides other Authorities which might be produced a very Antient Manuscript in Latin Verse in the Cotton Library ascribed to a Gildas who lived in the Year 860. speaking of several things done by that King in this British Kingdom says His ita dispositis in regnum tendit Ybernum These things thus settled he for Ireland goes Another Manuscript in the Cotton Library treating of the number of the Courâ—ies of England and the Countrys and Islands which of Right and without doubt belong to the Crown and Dignity of the Kingdom of Britain and the several Laws or Customs by which they were governed among the places subject to the Danelege mentions Man the Orcades Gurth and the other Islands of the Western Ocean about or in the way towards Norway and Danemark within which we may well think Ireland to have been meant since the Isle of Man is one of the Islands there taken to be about bordering upon or in the Road to Norway and Denmark Tho the Confessor's Law places the Foundation of the Right of the Crown of England to Ireland in the acquisition of King Arthur it must be agreed that this was so antiquated and so many Changes had happened in the State of this Nation between his time and King Edgar's that he might well have no regard to any Right from King Arthur And however might suppose himself to have been the first of the Anglo-Saxon Kings who had subjected Ireland or the greatest part of it to the Crown of England which that he did we have the Testimony of his memorable Charter Ego Eadgarus Anglorum Basilius omniumque Regum insularum quae Britanniam circumjacent cunctarumque nationum quae infra eam includuntur Imperator Dominus Gratias ago Deo Omnipotenti Regi meo qui meum Imperium sic ampliavit exaltavit super Regnum patrum meorum qui licet Monarchiam totius Angliae adepti sunt à tempore Ayelstani qui primus Regum Anglorum Nationes quae Britanniam incolunt sibi armis subegit nullus tamen eorum ultra ejus fines Imperium suum dilatare aggressus est Mihi autem concessit propitia divinitas cum Anglorum imperio omnia Regna Insularum Oceani cum suis ferocissimis Regulis usque Norvegiam maximamque partem Hiberniae cum suâ nobilissimâ civitate Dubliniâ Anglorum regno subjacere Quos etiam Armis meis imperiis colla subdere Dei juvante gratiâ coegi I Edgar King of the English and Emperor and Lord of all the Kings of the Islands which lie about Britain and of all Nations that are included within it give Thanks to God Almighty my King who hath so inlarged and exalted my Kingdom above the Kingdom of my Ancestors who altho they had gain'd the Monarchy of all England from the time of King Athelstan who was the first of the Kings of the English that brought under him by Arms the Nations which inhabit Britain yet none of them attempted to stretch his Empire beyond its bounds But the propitious Divinity has granted me with the Empire of the English to put under the Dominion of the English all the Kingdoms of the Isles of the Ocean with their fiercest little Kings as far as Norway and the greatest part of Ireland with its most noble City Dublin Even all those by the help of God's Grace I have compell'd to submit their Necks to my Commands From this time 't will be evident to any who observe the stiles of our Kings till H. II's time that the Authority of England over Ireland was taken to be included under the stile of King of the English Saxons of Britain of the Island of Albion or the like not but that for several Reigns before the time of H. II. Parliaments in which the King's Charters pass'd were often careful to have the stile more expressive of the Title to the Dominions out of England For instances of both kinds Edgar after the Charter above cited stiles himself Basileus dilectae Insulae Albionis subditis nobis sceptris Regum Scottorum Cumbrorumque ac Britonum omnium circumcirca Regionum King of the Beloved Island of Albion the Scepters of the Kings of the Scots the Cumbers and the Britons being subject to us and of all the Regions round about In another Basileus Anglorum Imperator Regum Gentium King of the English and Emperor of the Kings of Nations After this King Ethelred stiles himself sometimes Ego Adelred totius Albionis Monarchiam gubernans I Athelred governing the Monarchy of all Albion Subscribes Rex Anglorum King of the English Sometimes Ego Athelred totius Britanniae Basileus I Athelred King of all Britain Sometimes Ego Ethelred Britanniae totius Anglorum Monarchus I Ethelred Monarch of all the Britain of the English Sometimes Ego Ethelred totius Insulae I Ethelred King of the whole Island Subscribes Rex Rector Angulsexna King and Ruler of the Anglo-Saxons That Ireland and other Kingdoms and Dominions were included within this stile will appear by other Charters of the same King Thus he stiles himself Totius Anglorum Gentis Basileos caeterarumque Nationum in circuitu persistentium primatum gerens King of all the English Nation and having the Supremacy over the other Nations living round about At another time he stiles
to the antient and due state the dispersed dilapidated and lost Rights of the Kingdom This was not only incumbent upon the Prince but upon the People also who were sworn Brethren to defend the Kingdom against Strangers and against Enemies together with their Lord and King and with him to keep his Lands and Honours with all Fidelity Accordingly when the Pope cited E. 1. to answer judicially before him concerning his Right over Scotland the Parliament say The Premises would manifestly turn to the disherison of the Right of the Crown of the Kingdom of England and of the Royal Dignity and notorious subversion of the state of the said Kingdom And also to the prejudice of the Liberties the Customs and Laws of our Ancestors To the observation of which we are bound by virtue of the Oath we have taken and which we will maintain with all our Power and by God's assistance will defend with all our might Nor also do we or can we as indeed we may not suffer our Lord the King even tho he would to do or in any wise attempt the Premises c. Here 's a ground to justify H. 2. and the People of England at that time which this Gentleman never thought of And Giraldus Cambrensis an Author received by him and an Irish Parliament has shewn another from the nature of the Irish the necessity of their Reformation and that Authority which the generality of Christians in those dark Ages placed in the Pope As to the Character of the People after Girald had condemned their Clergy for not doing their duty among them he says Ut enim de perjuriis eorum proditionibus de furtis latrociniis quibus totus hic populus prope modum immopraeter modum indulget de vitiis variis immunditiis nimis onormibus quas topographia declarat ex toto non emittamus Gens haec Gens spurcissima Gens vitiis involutissima Gens omnium Gentium in fidei rudimentis incultissima For not wholly to omit speaking of their Perjuries and Treasons of the Thefts and Robberies which this whole people in some measure rather without measure indulges of their various vices and uncleannesses too enormous which our Topography declares This Nation is a Nation most vile a Nation the most drown'd in Vices a Nation of all Nations the most ignorant in the Rudiments of Religion This being the nature of the People at that time there might seem if there had been no prior Title to have been as much a right of occupancy as any Nation has had by the first possessing the Lands of Savages but if the right of civilizing the barbarous part of Mankind was not sufficient that Power which the then general consent of Nations had placed in the Pope joined with the other made a Title which none but the Barbarians then disputed This H. 2. had amply and formally Giraldus Cambrensis not only informs us that the Pope gave H. 2. licence to subdue the Irish but exhibits the Bull at large which reciting the King's Intention of entring the Island of Ireland Ad subdendum populum illum legibus vitiorum plantaria inde extirpanda de singulis domibus annuam unius denarii B. Petro velle solvere pensionem jura Ecclesiarum terrae illius illibata integra conservare To subdue that people to Laws and extirpate the plantations of Vices from thence and that he will pay to St. Peter the annual Pension of a Penny out of every House and preserve the Rights of the Churches of that Land unprejudiced and entire Declares the Pope's approbation of that King 's attempting that Island for enlarging the bounds of the Church for restraining the course of Vices for correcting their Manners and sowing Virtues for the encrease of the Christian Religion And this Pope desires the King's purpose may take effect for the Honour of God and Salvation of that Land and that the People of that Land should receive him honourably and reverence him as their Lord. Jure nimirum e contrario illibato integro permanente salva B. Petro S. R. E. de singulis domibus unius denarii pensione The Right however remaining unprejudiced and entire and saving to St. Peter and the holy Church of Rome the pension of a Penny out of every House The Right of the Church was hereby reserv'd unprejudiced the Recital seems to make it to relate to the particular Churches and this Mr. Molineux if he please may take to amount to such a Freedom as exempted them from the Jurisdiction of the Pope as well as of the See of Canterbury but he may easily observe that the Superiority of both is fully reserved and implied under jure illibato integro permanente It thus appearing that this Gentleman had not attended to the true grounds of H. 2 d's Attempt upon Ireland I shall consider what Submission the Irish made to him and in what sense he and his Parliament took it 'T is evident beyond contradiction that they did not submit to him as to a King whom they chose to govern according to their own Laws but as one that imposed and was to impose Laws upon them Of this Mr. Molineâ—x seems so much aware that where he speaks of the submitting to H. 2. he only mentions the general terms of receiving him for King and Lord of Ireland and swearing Allegiance to him and his Heirs or the like but the swearing to the Laws of England he places among the Conâ—essions as if they were no otherwise subject to them than the People of England 'T is to be observed for proof that the Submission was truly voluntary and that there was such a Consent as is essential to the making Laws to bind Posterity that upon H. 2's landing at Waterford several of the Irish Kings and almost all the Nobility of Ireland flock'd in to him that the Archbishops Bishops and Abbats of all Ireland receiv'd him for King and Lord of Ireland and swore to him and his Heiâ—s binding themselves by their Charters to perpetual Allegiance and that after their example and in like manner the Kings and Princes there present receiv'd him for Lord and King of Ireland Upon which I need not observe the known difference taken in Pliny and other good Authors between Dominus and Princeps since after this the King held a Council at Lismore cited by this Gentleman in a wrong place Ubi leges Angliae sunt ab omnibus gratanter receptae juratoriâ cautione confirmatae Where the Laws of England are thankfully received of all and confirm'd by a juratory Caution And for a farther Security the King possest himself of several Cities and Castles which he put into safe hands but of this Mr. M. takes no notice As a cotemporary Exposition is ever of greatest Authority let 's see whether the meaning of this was that Ireland was to be governd by
Parliaments of its own as free and independent as England or that it should be governed by the Laws made and to be made by England Mr. Molineux confesses that H. II. within five years after his Return from Ireland created his younger Son John King of Ireland at a Parliament held at Oxford he might have learn'd from the same Authority that in that Parliament he not only disposed of several petty Kingdoms there to hold of him and John his Son but Hoveden has these words which comprehend Lands as well as Governments Postquam autem Dominus Rex apud Oxenford in praedicto modo terras Hiberniae earum servitia divisisset fecit omnes quibus earundem custodias commisserat homines suos Johannis filii sui devenire But after the Lord the King had at Oxford in manner aforesaid divided the Lands of Ireland and their Services he caused all those to whom he had committed the Custody of them to do homage to him and his Son John to swear Allegiance and Fidelity to them Bromton says Apud Oxoniam idem Rex Angliae Johannem filium snum coram Episc regni sui Princip Regem Hiberniae constituit Et postea fecit quosdam familiares suos sibi Johanni filio suo ligantias fidelitates homagia contra omnes homines facere jurare Quibus terras Hiberniae dedit distribuit in hunc modum c. At Oxford the said King constituted his Son John King of Ireland before the Bishops and Princes of his Kingdom And afterwards he made some of his Courtiers to do and swear Allegiance Fidelity and Homage to himself and his Son John against all men To whom he gave and distributed the Lands of Ireland in this manner c. If what the King did in a Parliament was a Parliamentary Act here was an Act of the English Parliament which by Mr. Molineux's Confession impos'd a King upon Ireland to whom they had not sworn any otherwise than as they swore to submit to the English Laws and he should have observed that herein according to his own inference of the making Ireland a separate Kingdom the English Parliament undertook to discharge the Oath which the Irish had taken to be true to H. 2. and his Heirs and sutably to the Legislative Authority over Ireland in this Particular the same Parliament at Oxford disposed of and distributed the Lands of Ireland without expecting any Ratification from thence Here 's a Parliamentary and cotemporary Exposition of what this Gentleman calls the Original Compact between England and Ireland I must agree tho he has not observ'd it that notwithstanding H. Il's Acquisition in Ireland an Irish Native had quiet possession of a Kingdom which he seem'd to claim as chief King over the Irish This was Roderic King of Connaught who upon paying his Tribute and performing his appointed Service was according to Hoveden to hold his Land as he held it before H. II. enter'd Ireland which could not be true in a strict sense unless he were dependent upon the Crown of England before and however this was a Grant after a more absolute Acquisition and three years after Girald holds as do the Irish Statutes that he had conquer'd the whole Land of Ireland Abbat Benedict an Author of that time to be seen in the Cotton Library speaking of H. II. says Concedit Roderico ligio suo Regi Conautae quamdiu ei fideliter serviet ut sit Rex sub eo paratus ad servitium suum salvo in omnibus jure honore Domini Regis Angliae suo He grants to Roderic his Leige-man King of Connaught that as long as he faithfully served him he should be a King under him ready for his Service saving in all things the Right and Honour of the Lord the King of England and his As it appears by Record by the 7 th of King John the King of Connaught had two thirds duly taken from him for not performing his Service or else he never had more than a third of that Kingdom granted for then he acknowledged that he held a 3 d part in the name of a Barony and for the other two thirds proffers the King Duos Cantredos cum Nativis eorundem Cantredorum de praedictis duabus partibus ad firmandum in eis vel faciendum inde voluntatem suam Two Cantreds with the Natives of those Cantreds to let 'em to farm or to do with them what he pleased Thus I take it his Kingdom was as much dependent upon the Crown of England as any Barony in Ireland or England and as subject to Forfeiture And 't is probable that this King was the head of the O Conoghors of Connaught who are 3 E. 2. admitted to be entituled to the English Law But tho the Law of England was not current beyond the English Pale or those Cantreds and Divisions of Irish who continued under Obedience to the English yet the Crown of England has from very antient times not only laid claim to the Lordship over the whole Land of Ireland but their Parliaments have recognized this Right more than once Mr. M. if he had pleased might have found that Acts of Parliament made in Ireland lay a much earlier Foundation of the Right of the Crown of England to the Land of Ireland even than our Confessor's Law does A Statute made in Ireland 1 Eliz among sundry Titles which the antient Chronicles in the Latin English and Irish Tongues alledge for the Kings of England to the Land of Ireland derives one from Gormond Son of Belin King of Great Britain This King our Historians call Gurgunstus and is said to have reign'd in Great Britain 375 years before the Christian Aerd Grafton agreeing with the Irish Statute tells us that in his return from Denmark he met with a Fleet of Spaniards which were seeking for Habitations to whom the King granted the Isle of Ireland to inhabit and to hold of him as their Sovereign Lord. The Statute made in Ireland 13 C. 2. recognizing his Title has these words Recognitions of this nature may seem unnecessary where your Majesty's Title to this your Realm is so clear as that it is avowed in sundry Acts of Parliament heretofore made within this Kingdom in the times of your Majesty's Royal Progenitors of famous memory and SO ANTIENT AS IT IS DEDUCED NOT ONLY FROM THE DAYS OF KING H. 2. your Majesty 's Royal Ancestor BUT FROM TIMES FAR MORE ANTIENT AS BY SUNDRY AUTHENTICK EVIDENCES MENTIONED IN THE SAID ACTS AND RECORDS OF THIS YOUR MAJESTY'S KINGDOM MAY EVIDENTLY APPEAR Since Mr. Molineux allows Acts of Parliament made in Ireland to have full Authority I hope he will confess that he has given a very imperfect and undue account how Ireland became a Kingdom annexed to the Crown of England and thus not here to observe that he need not have gone
of his stile of Lord of Ireland in imposing Laws and a King upon ' em And I would gladly know what Irish Laws and Customs he swore to maintain Tho therefore I am as avers to the common Notions of Conquest as this Gentleman especially to the supposition that God in giving one Prince a Conquest over another THEREBY puts one in possession of the others Dominions and makes the other's Subjects become his Subjects or his Slaves as they come in upon conditions or at the will of the Conqueror Yet I must desire Mr. M. to explain those Acts of Parliament made in Ireland which not only seem to import that the Crown and Kingdom of England had made an absolute acquisition of the Land of Ireland but use that scurvy word Conquest An Act 28 H. 8. recites That the King's Land of Ireland heretofore being inhabired and in dâ—e obedience unto the King 's most noble Progenitors Kings of England who in the right of the Crown of England had great Possessions Rents and Profits within the same Land had grown into great ruin and desolation for that great Dominions Lands and Possessions had by the King's Grants course of Descents and otherwise come to Noblemen of England by whose negligence the wild Irish got into possession the Conquest and winning whereof in the beginning not only cost the King 's noble Progenitors but also those to whom the Lands belong'd charges inestimable and tho the King's English Subjects had valiantly opposed the Irish yet upon their absenting themselves again out of Ireland the Natives from time to time usurped and encroached upon the King's Dominions and particularly that the Earl of Kildare with his accomplices endeavour'd to take the Land of Ireland out of the King's possession and his Heirs thereof for ever to disherit For these and divers other hurts and enormities like to ensue to the Commonweal of the Island in respect of the inestimable Charges which the King had sustained and apparently had occasion to sustain for and about the conquest and recontinuance of the same out of his Enemies possession tho the King had right to all the Lands and Possessions there referr'd to and tho he might justly insist upon the Arrears of two parts of the Land of those who had absented themselves which might amount to more than the purchase of 'em it vests in the King and his Heirs as in the Right of the Crown of England only the Lands of some particular persons The Stature of the Queen attainting Shane Oneile speaks of populous rich and well-govern'd Regions wealthy Subjects beautiful Cities and Towns of which the Imperial Crown of England had before that time been conveniently furnished within the Realm of Ireland which after being lost had been recontinued to the Queen 's quiet possession But the Rebel Shane Oneile refusing the name of a Subject and taking upon him as it were the Office of a Prince had enterprized great Stirs Insurrections and horrible Treasons against her Majesty her Crown and Dignity imagining to deprive her Highness her Heirs and Successors from the real and actual possession of her Kingdom of Ireland her true just and ancient Inheritance to her by sundry Descents and authentick strong Titles rightfully and lawfully devolved And having mention'd a Title from Gurmond the Son of Belin King of Great Britain says Another Title is as the Clerk Giraldus Cambrensis writeth at large of the History of the Conquest of Ireland by King H. 2. your famous Progenitor The Title to the Land then recognized was abundantly strengthned and confirmed by Irish Parliaments in the time of J. 1. and since In the Act of Recognition to J. 1. they tell him of his having quench'd the most dangerous and universal Rebellion that ever was rais'd in that Kingdom in the suppressing whereof the unreform'd parts of the Land which being rul'd by Irish Lords and Customs had never before receiv'd the Laws and civil Government of England were so broken and reduced to Obedience that all the Inhabitants thereof did gladly submit themselves to his Highness's ordinary Laws and Magistrates which gave unto his Majesty a more entire absolute and actual possession than ever any of his Progenitors had All Ireland being thus brought into subjection to the Crown and Laws of England K. James taking notice of Laws which had been made after the Conquest of that Realm by his Progenitors Kings of England to keep up the distinction between the English and the Natives of the Irish Blood that he had then taken 'em all into his protection and that they lived under one Law as dutiful Subjects of their Sovereign Lord and Monarch repeals those dividing Laws After this the Irish Parliament granted C. 1. four Subsidies rightly considering the vast and almost infinite expence of Men Mony Victuals and Arms sent out of England thither by the King and his Royal Progenitors for reducing that Kingdom into the happy condition wherein it then stood And sutably to the import of the word Conquest Acts of Parliament of that Kingdom in the Reign of that King shew that the Titles to Lands of the English Plantation or which they from time to time gain'd from the Irish were enjoy'd by Grants from the Crown and for securing the Estates to Vndertakers Servitors Natives and others all the Lands in several Counties commonly call'd Plantation Lands were vested in the King his Heirs and Successors in right of the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland The Stat. 14 15 C. 2. holds the Irish Rebels to be subdued and conquer'd Enemies and therefore vests all their Lands in the Crown of England in order to make satisfaction to the Protestant Adventurers for the reducing that Kingdom to its due obedience and to enable the Crown to extend Grace to such as should be held deserving of it Reprisals being first made to the Protestant Proprietors Tho therefore I am far from admiring the Lord Coke's reasoning in Calvin's Case I may here subjoin part of Mr. M's reflection upon him and refer him to the Irish Acts of Parliament to qualify his Censure of the Ld Coke's restriction of the Opinion in the Year-book 2 R. 2. that the Irish are not bound by Statutes made in England because they have no Knights of Parliament here which says the Lord Coke is to be understood unless they be specially named To this assertion Mr. Molineux admits he gives colour of reason by saying That tho Ireland be a distinct Dominion from England yet the Title thereof being by Conquest the same by Judgment of Law might by express words be bound by the Parliaments of England To confound the Lord Coke I would fain know says this Gentleman what the Lord Coke means by Judgment of Law Whether he means the Law of Nature and Reason or of Nations or the Civil Laws of our Common-wealths For answer to which I need at present only
Kingdom of England neither was this any diminution to the Prerogative of the Crown The instance of Chester I may well bring to this point being authorized by the Learned Judg Shardlow in the time of E. 2. In an Action of Debt in the King's-Bench here upon a Bond seal'd at Chester that learned Judg says Chester is out of our Jurisdiction here insomuch that there is not any Minister in that County answerable here for what he has done Of a Deed done out of the Jurisdiction here or out of the Realm as at Paris or elsewhere beyond Sea I ought not to answer The Counsel urges that the Power here extends throughout the Realm of England and to a Deed done within the Realm of England you ought to answer and Chester is within England But Shardlow insists upon his former Judgment and adds IRELAND IS WITHIN THE REALM and to a Deed committed there I shall not answer here Also Duresm is within England yet I shall not answer at all here because the Court cannot try the Fact if denied This shews plainly that at that time Ireland was as much part of this Realm as Chester that the distinction of Jurisdictions was not for want of Superiority This has been maintain'd over Chester and Ireland by Writs of Error upon Judgments in Law The reason of which is given by Chief Justice Vaughan that otherwise they may insensibly alter the Law appointed or permitted or give judgment to the lessening the Superiority Mr. Molineux will have it th◠this removal of a Judgment from the King's Bench of Ireland by Writ of Error into the King's Bench of England dos not infer the subordination of Ireland to the Kingdom of England but that this was a method appointed by an Act of Parliament of Ireland which is lost among a great number of other Acts which they want for the space of 130 years at one time and 120 a◠another 'T is easily supposed by him that they had Parliaments of their own for the most of those times but others will believe that they were generally governed by the Laws of England according to the Tenour of their submission to H. 2. and the interpretation then put upon that submission But methinks the force of his Argument in relation to the ordinary Jurisdictions the King's Bench of England exercises over that of Ireland is not to be fear'd He is pleased to say erroneous Judgments might have been removed from England into the King's Court in Ireland for so certainly it must be since the Court travelled with the King For which I need only mind him of his own quotation of Sir Richard Pembrough's Case according to which for the King to have required the attendance there of the Tenants in chief who were the Judges in his Court here would have bin a banishment But 't is certain this could be no part of their Duty declared by the constitutions of Clarendon 10 H. 2. in affirmance of the antient customs of the Realm of England under that clause which requires 'em to be at the Trials and Judgments of the King's Courts Besides I shall shew that the King's Court in England which when not meant of the Parliament did manifestly in those antient times relate either to a Counsel chosen in Parliament and acting out of it by Authority from thence or to the Body of the Tenants in chief the Great Lords for whose easing themselves of such troublesome attendances the later Jurisdiction of the present King's Bench has sprung up was possess'd of the Superiority of ordinary Jurisdiction over Ireland before Mr. M. can shew that they had any Acts made in Ireland of any kind except that wherein they first gave themselves up to obey and depend on the English Legislature and unless they can produce Acts of their Parliaments for raising Aids to the Crown of England In the 37 th of H. 3. one Baret complain'd to the King of injustice done him by Justices itinerant at Limbrick Upon which the Justices of Ireland were commanded to send the Record before the King Where the Record was commanded hither per saltum without any regard to the King's Bench of Ireland And another Record in the same Year before Shardlow and other Justices at Dublin as I take it of the Common Pleas there was by Writ of Error from hence transmitted to the Justice of Ireland Without which it seems he was then held to have no Authority to proceed in Ireland In the 20 th of E. 1. a Writ of Error had removed out of Ireland a Record of a Judgment of Felony Which indeed was remanded not for want of Jurisdiction to correct the Error of the Judges in Ireland But 1. Because there was no notice to the King's Attorney General for Ireland or at least he did not attend 2. Because 't was a question of Fact Quia nullus venit ex parte Regis ad sequendum pro ipso qui veritatem sciverit ideo haec non potest ad examinationem set magis expedit domino Regi quòd in partibus Hiberniae ubi feloniae praed perpetrari debent examinentur modo debito terminentur Because no body who may know the truth comes of the part of the King to prosecute for him Therefore this cannot proceed to examination but 't is expedient for the King that the said Felonies should be examined and duly determined in Ireland where the said Felonies are suppos'd to have been committed However Mr. M. conceives it manifest that the Jurisdiction of the King's Bench in England over a Judgment in the King's Bench of Ireland dos not proceed from any subordination of one Kingdom to the other because the Judges in England ought and always do judg according to the Laws and Customs of Ireland and not according to the Laws and Customs of England any otherwise than as these may be of force in Ireland But 1. 'T is evident that the Judges neither will nor can judg according to any Law or Custom of Ireland which is contrary to the Rules of our Law or which has not been allowed there as no way prejudicial to the Law here According to his instance of a Declaration for an Acre of Bog a word not known in England but well enough understood in Ireland Which I may answer with a parallel case lately adjudged in the Exchequer of England One having spoken scandalous welsh words in Wales or in a part of England where the Welsh Tongue is used was libel'd against in the Ecclesiastical Court there Upon which the Court of Exchequer was moved for a Prohibition because the Words were insensible and of no signification But no Prohibition was granted because they were understood where they were spoken And thus 't is in relation to the particular Instances of Mannors or inferiour Courts Therefore 2. By the same reason that the judging according to the Law used in Ireland would
imply that there is no Subordination 't will follow that the Inferior Courts in England are not subordinate to the Courts of Westminster-Hall and I may add neither is the King's Bench of England subordinate to the House of Lords As to the question of their Jurisdiction occasioned as Mr. M's Margin has it by the Case of the Bishop of Derry I need say little here referring him to the Judgment of the Lords and to that exercice of the Judicial Power which I shall have an opportunity of shewing in the Reign of E. 1. But as to his supposed clear Argument against the subordination from the Lords doing nothing upon the Petition of the Prior of Lanthony who appeal'd to the Parliament of England from a refusal of the King's Bench here to meddle with a Judgment which had pass'd in the Parliament of Ireland 'T will admit of several Answers 1. This came not before the Lords by Writ of Error or by Appeal from the Lords of Ireland but was a complaint of the King's Bench here 2. This was after the Charter which I shall afterwards shew placing a judicial Power to some Purposes in their Parliaments But whether they exceeded that Authority 't was not for the King's Bench to judg but for that Power from whence their Charter was derived 3. This Petition seems either to have come too late or to have been waved for if it had fallen under consideration 't is probable that some Answer to it could have been endors'd as was usual in former times But that the ordinary Jurisdiction both of the Lords in Parliament and of the King's-Bench here is but an incident to the Superiority of the Crown of England will be much clearer than any thing Mr. M. has urged And whatever Mr. M. conceives the Annexation of Ireland to the Crown of England will sufficiently manifest the Subordination tho he supposing that this was done by the Irish Statute which annexes it as a Kingdom with others which declare it annex'd as a Land or Dominion of a lower Character conceives little more is effected by these Statutes than that Ireland shall not be aliened or separated from the King of England who cannot hereby dispose of it otherwise than in legal Succession along with England and that whoever is King of England is ipso facto King of Ireland But if these Statutes bating the name of Kingdom which the Parliament of England afterwards gave them are only declaratory of the antient Right of the Crown of England then I may well hold that there is not so much effected by these Statutes as he yields it being only the operation of Law And if by operation of Law a King of England tho not succeeding by a strict Right of Descent but by the Choice or Declaration of the States of this Realm is ipso facto King or Lord of Ireland I would gladly know how that Kingdom or Land which he owns to be thus inseparably annex'd to the Imperial Crown of England can be a compleat Kingdom And since he is pleas'd to ask whether multitudes of Acts of Parliament both of England and Ireland have not declared Ireland a compleat Kingdom and whether 't is not stiled in them all the Kingdom or Realm of Ireland I would entreat the favour of him to shew me one Act of Parliament of either Kingdom which says or all Circumstances consider'd implies that Ireland is a compleat Kingdom or that ever any Parliament of their own held it to be advanced to the Dignity of a Kingdom before 33 H. 8. tho as they acknowledg the Kings of England had Kingly Power there long before I must own that as the name of King was in H. 8's time thought requisite to charm the wild Irish into Obedience so in Queen Elizabeth's time Imperial Crown was thought to make a conquering Sound but this was never ascribed to it by any Parliament of Englandâ— nor that I can find even of Ireland before her Reign or since But the one Imperial Crown upon which Ireland has been and still is dependent is the Crown of England sor this the Statute of Ireland before that was made a Kingdom is express having these words Calling to our remembrance the great Divisions which in time past have been by reason of several Titles pretended to the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England whereunto this your Land of Ireland is appending and belonging So another in the same Year Forasmuch as this Land of Ireland is depending and belonging justly and rightfully to the Imperial Crown of England it enacts that the King his Heirs and Successors Kings of the Realm of England and Lords of this said Land of Ireland shall have and enjoy annexed and united to the Imperial Crown of England all Honours Dignities Pre-eminencies and Authorities c. belonging to the Church of Ireland If Mr. Molineux observes duly Ireland has all these Imperial Rights declared in the Irish Statute 33 H. 8. c 1. but I cannot find by what Rule he insers this from an Act of Parliament which is express that the King of England shall have the Name Stile Title and Honour of King of Ireland with all manner of Preheminencies c. as united and knit to the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England Indeed it shews that under the name of Lord the King had the same Authority but the name of King was thought likely to be more prevalent with the Irish Men and Inhabitants within that Realm The Statute 11 Jac. 1. declares him King of England Scotland France and Ireland by God's Goodness and Right of Descent under one Imperial Crown And the Statute 10 C. 1. calls this the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland And indeed Mr. Molineux would do well to shew that ever any of our Kings took any Coronation Oath for Ireland otherwise than as Kings of England And yet I know not what he may do when his hand 's in since he has the Art to transubstantiate their Recital of an Act of Parliament in England which declares that Popes had usurped an Authority in derogation of the Right of the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England recognizing no Superiour under God but only the King and being free from Subjection to any Man's Laws but only such as have been devised made and ordain'd within the Realm of England or to such other as by sufferance of the King and his Progenitors the People of the Realm of England had taken at their free Liberty by their own Consent to be used among them and have bound themselves by long Custom to the observance of the same To infer that 't is thus with Ireland because the enacting part of that Statute which has this Recital is promulged for a Law in Ireland is to suppose Ireland to be turned into England and that the Commissioners who are by virtue of that Act and the Great Seal to exercise that
ratification of the King's Majesty's Stile by the King with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in that Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same enacting that all and singular his Grace's Subjects and Resiants of or within this his Realm of England Ireland and elsewhere with other his Majesty's Dominions from thenceforth accept and take the King's Stile in manner and form following H. 8. by the Grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth the supream Head And 't is enacted that the said stile shall be from thenceforth by the Authority aforesaid united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of his Highness's Realm of England This related to all Ecclesiastical Power as well as Civil in Ireland as well as England In pursuance of this the Statute 1 Eliz. for the extinguishing all usurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal which had been used within this Realm or any other her Majesty's Dominions or Countries enacts That no Foreign Prince or Prelat shall enjoy any Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority or Privilege Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm or within any other her Majesty's Dominions or Countries but that such Power c. shall be abolished out of this Realm and all other her Highness's Dominions And that all Power of visiting and correcting for Heresies Schism c. shall for ever by Authority of that Parliament be united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm Ecclesiastics were to swear that they would maintain all such Jurisdiction Privileges Preeminence and Authority as granted or belonging to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and Successors or united to the Imperial Crown of the Realm And the Queen is impowred to issue out Commissions for the executing that Act. This Statute bound Ireland by plain intention as that 34 and 35 H. 8. did in express words But Mr. M. will have it a mighty Argument that this was of no force in Ireland till received by a Parliament there because after it had bin repealed in England by one Act and another since the Revolution has declared such Commissions to be illegal yet the Chancellor and others in Ireland have held it to be still in force there But 1. He ought to have shewn that the Statute here repealing so much of the Statute of the Queen as plainly exprest an intention that no such Commission should be granted in Ireland as the Statute of the Queen did that Ireland should be subject to the same Ecclesiastical Authority and in the same manner that England was nor is it to any purpose for him to cite the Declarations in the late Statute of the illegality of such Commissions unless that Act had damn'd such Commissions not only as being contrary to the Act of Repeal but not to be warranted by the Statute of the Queen but then this would have condemned the Resolution which he cites of the Authority of such Commissions still in Ireland 2. Admit Mr. M. should prove that the Statute made in England taking away the Authority of such Ecclesiastical Commissions here as plainly intended to reach Ireland 't will afterwards appear that unless Mr. M. shew that this Act had been transmitted to Ireland under the Great Seal of England the supposition that such Commissions may still be legally executed in Ireland will not in the least derogate from the Authority of the Parliament of England 3 dly But how contrary his supposal of an independent Authority in the Parliament of Ireland is not only to the Laws of reasoning but the Authorities of all times from H. 2. downwards has already appeared in some measure and may farther by some Authorities out of many which will manifest that the Rights of the Crown of England to impose Laws upon Ireland by virtue of prior submissions and consent is so far from being departed from that 't is strengthned and confirmed by long exercice and submission to it Mr. M. considering the State of the Statute Laws of England under H. 2. King John and H. 3. agrees That by the Irish voluntary submission to and acceptance of the Laws of England we must repute them to have submitted themselves to these likewise till a regular Legislature was established among them in pursuance of that voluntary submission and voluntary acceptance Yet he soon forgets this Concession and would have it that the men of Ireland were not bound by new Laws but that the Grants of Liberties from Edward the Confessor's time down to H. 3. were only declaratory Laws and confirmations one of another and that thus Ireland came to be govern'd by one and the same common Law with England I must confess I could not but smile at his Marginal Note upon the proceedings of the Parliament at Oxford in the Reign of H. 2. by this Ireland made an absolute separate Kingdom And in the Body of his Book he says We shall observe that by this donation of the Kingdom of Ireland to King John Ireland was most eminently set apart again as a separate and distinct Kingdom by it self from the Kingdom of England and did so continue until the Kingdom of England descended and came unto King John But to help him to understand this matter I shall mind him of another passage in Hen. II's Reign As he placed his Son John in Ireland he to secure the Succession of the Imperial Crown of England to his eldest Son Henry caused him in a Parliament to be chosen and made King of England while Henry the Father was alive Now did the Father by this separate England from his own Jurisdiction No certainly and indeed in the Oath to the Son and the homage perform'd both at the Coronation and afterwards by the King of Scots there was a particular saving of the Allegiance and Homage due to the Father Thus both Hoveden and Bromton shew that 't was in relation to the constituting John King of Ireland as they call him they are express that they to whom the Lands of Ireland were distributed in that very Parliament which gave John his Office and Authority were sworn to the Father and the Son And Mr. M. might have observ'd that a Charter pass'd in that Parliament and cited by Sir John Davis grants to Hugh de Lacy large Territories in the County of Methe to hold of H. 2. and his Heirs Whereas if Ireland had been given as Mr. M. will have it to John and that thereby 't was made an absolute Kingdom separate and wholly independent on England The Tenure must have been of John and his Heirs The Oath of Allegiance which in those days used to have no mention of Heirs was to H. 2. as King of England and went along with the Crown but the Tenure reserved was expresly to the Heirs of H. 2. which must relate to the legal Successors to
the Crown of England since as King he could have no other Heir But as this may manifest that the Parliament which made John King of Ireland design'd him no more than a subordinate and vicarious Authority 't is plain he himself did not think he had more in the Seal which he used he stiled himself Son of the King Lord or who is Lord of Ireland Nor is there the least footstep of any Coronation Oath taken by John as King of Ireland or that he ever wore an Irish Crown Notwithstanding that share in the Government of Ireland which John had in his Father's life-time Ireland upon the Father's death fell to R. 1. and the Archbishop of Dublin was assisting at his first Coronation before he went to the Holy War Nor did John ever pretend to be King of Ireland while R. 1. lived more than of England which having attempted while his Brother was in Foreign parts far remote upon his Brother's return he was by Parliament deprived of all his Honours and Fortune And thus at least he lost his suppos'd Royalty of Ireland if it did not expire upon the death of H. 2. and this shews how rightly Polidore judged in calling him Regulus or Viceroy I will therefore admit Mr. M's supposal that R. 1. had not died without Issue but his Progeny had sat on the Throne of England in a continued succession to this day but cannot admit the other part of his supposal that the same had been in relation to the Throne of Ireland since John never had such Throne either before he was King of England nor after and therefore I may well conclude that the subordination of Ireland to the Parliament or even to the King of England need not arise from any thing that followed after the descent of England to King John Nor indeed was John King either of England or Ireland by descent but that Election of the States of the Kingdom of England which made him their King preferring him before Arthur an elder Brother's Son drew after it the Lordship of Ireland as an Appendant to the Crown of England And however if H. 2. had not sufficiently brought the Irish under the English Laws John did after he came to be King of England In the 9 th of his Reign he imposed Laws upon them in a Parliament of England not indeed without the desire and counsel of such English Lords who had Lands in Ireland but then their consent would have been involved in the consent of the majority here tho those Lords should have expresly dissented But the Authority was derived from the consent of the King 's faithful People which is mentioned as distinct from the desire or petition which occasioned the Law then made in a Parliament of England for the expelling Thieves and Robbers out of the King's Land of Ireland For the effectual execution of this Act of Parliament King John's Expedition seems to have been undertaken the next year when he entirely subdu'd his Enemies and confiscated the Estates of some of the English great Men in Ireland Which Confiscation seems to have been after his return to England but before that or at some other time in his Reign he made a Law in Ireland which he commanded to be observed there That all the Laws and Customs which are in force in England should be in force in Ireland and that Land be subject to the same Laws and be govern'd by them This was before any pretence to their having any Charter for a Parliament other than the supposed sending over the modus tenendi Parl. by H. 2. and is before the time that Mr. M. takes a regular Legislature to have been established among them Therefore according to himself we must repute them to have submitted not only to such Laws as had before that time been made in Parliaments of England but such as should be made till they of Ireland should have the establishment of a regular Legislature However Mr. M. will have it that John gave Laws to Ireland not as King of England but as Lord of Ireland and forms a pretty sort of an Argument from the stile of Lord of Ireland as if this were an Argument that 't is not dependent upon the Crown of England so excellent a faculty has he of making contraries serve his purpose But 't is very unlucky that John's retaining this stile is not only an Argument that Ireland is a Dominion or Land appendant to the Crown of England but that John was never King of Ireland which he would certainly have kept up as a distinct Interest if he ever had such a Title separate from the Crown of England H. 3. being made K. of England by the like choice of the States which preferr'd him before Arthur's Sister as they did John before the Brother in concurrence with these States truly acted as Lord of Ireland as might be shewn by numerous Instances In the 18 th of his Reign upon matters signified to him out of Ireland he summoned the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons and all the great Men or Nobility of the Kingdom of England to a Parliament at London to treat about the State of his Kingdom and of his Land of Ireland And in the 21 of his Reign he sends a Writ to the Archbishops and others of Ireland acquainting them that by the common consent of the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons of the Kingdom of England alterations of the Law of England were enacted as to the Limitations of several Writs which were then required to be observed in Ireland in pursuance of the Statute of Merton In the 37 th of his Reign an Irish man having pleaded that he and his Brother and their Ancestors had always bin faithful to the Kings of England his Predecessors and served them in the CONQUEST OF THE IRISH they are by peculiar licence under the Great Seal of England admitted to enjoy by descent as Englishmen Which was an alteration of the Law and Custom of Ireland as to those particular Persons without any Act of Parliament there Indeed but four years after 't is recorded that 't was long before and many Ages past which must reach beyond the Expedition of H. 2. provided and yielded by the assent and desire of the Prelats and great Men of the Land of Ireland that they should be bound by the Laws us'd in the Kingdom of England Yet the same Record restrains this to the consent of only the English of the Land of Ireland However 't is beyond dispute that the English Laws both made and to be made in England were then held to reach as far as the English Interest in the Land of Ireland and this according to the Record 18 H. 2. above referr'd to was provided de communi Consilio Regis by the King 's Common Council tho by what
Council it must have been provided will more fully appear afterwards I may here explain it by an Instance in that Reign All must agree that the Provisions of Oxford in the 43 d of H. 3. and referr'd to in the Records of the next year were made in as true a Parliament as any in that Reign before the 49 th 't is call'd a Parliament by good Authors and the word is used in the Records of the next year in relation to a meeting on the Borders of Wales The Ordinances and Provisions made at Oxford were drawn up by 12 chosen by the King and 12 by the Commons concerning which the Record has these words Anno ab incarnat domini 1259. Regni autem H. Regis fil Regis J. 43. in quindena St. Mic. conven ips domino Rege magnatibus suis de communi consilio consensu dictor Regis magnatum factae sunt provisiones per ipsos Regem Magnates In the year from the incarnation of our Lord 1259. but of the Reign of K. Henry Son of K. John the 43d the said King and his great Men being assembled in the Quinzism of St. Michael Provisions were made by the Common Council and consent of the said King and great men And yet some of the Entries in the same Roll mentioning Provisions then made are per magnates nostros qui sunt de consilio nostro By our great Men of our Council Others Per magnates de Consilio meo By the great Men of our Council As if 't was by the sole Authority of the King and such noble Men as were of his Privy or Private Council wheâ— those Provisions were certainly made in full Parliament and this was the Council from whence Ireland then receiv'd its Laws However from a Charter in the first of that King's Reign Mr. M. would infer that the English there had their independent Parliaments then established or confirmed tho he afterwards admits that during that King's Reign they might have been bound by Laws made here for want of a regular legislature establish'd amongst them The Charter or rather Writ with which a Charter was sent runs thus Rex Archiepisc Episc Abbatibus Comitibus Baronibus Militibus omnibus fidelibus suis per Hiberniam constitutis salutem fidelitatemvestram in Domino commendantes quam Domino Patri nostro semper exhibuistis nobis estis diebus nostris exhibituri volumus quòd in signum fideliâ—aâ—is vestraetam praeclarae tam insignis libertatibus Regno nostro Angliae à patre nostro nobis concessis de gratiâ nostrâ dono in Regno Hiberniae gaudeatis quas distinctè in scriptum reductas de'communi consilio omnium fidel nostrorum vobis mittimus signatas Sigillis Domini nostri G. Apostolicae sedis Legati fidelis nostri Comitis Mareschalli Rector is nostri regni nostri quia sigillum nondum habuimus easdem processu temporis de Majori consilio proprio Sigillo signatur Teste apud Glost 6. Feb. The King to the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons Kts. and all our faithful Subjects constituted throughout Ireland Health Commending your fidelity in the Lord which you always shewed to your Lord our Father and are about to shew to 〈◊〉 in our days we will that in sign of your fidelity â—o remarkable so eminent you enjoy in our Kingdom of Ireland the Libâ—rties granted to our Kingdom of England by our Father us which distinctly reduced into Writing we send you by the Common Counsel of all our faithful People Sealed with the Seals of the Lord G. Legate of the Apostolick See of our faithful Subject W. Earl Marshal Regent of us and our Kingdom because we have not yet a Seal intending in process of time by consent of a greater Counsel to seal them with our own Seal Teste at Gloster 6. Feb. How specious soever this may seem 't will neither prove Ireland to have been a Kingdom so early nor to have had a grant of the English Liberties in the same manner as the English enjoyed them that is so as to have no Law imposed upon them without their express and immediate consent to that very Law For 1. 'T is not to be suppos'd but that if Ireland had been a Kingdom before this Charter H. 2. and other Kings of England would have stiled themselves Kings of Ireland rather than Lords because of the greater Dignity of Kingship unless Lord was chosen as implying more absolute Power which would argue that Ireland did not enjoy the English Laws with equal Freedom 2. This Writ mentions no Liberties granted to Ireland but what had been granted to England which besides the improbability that Ireland should 1 H. 3. have a Charter of the same form with that which did not pass in England till 8 Years after shews the spuriousness of the suppos'd Charter preserved in the red Book of the Exchequer at Dublin as dated the November before the Charter sent the 6th of February and however the constant method of sending Laws from hence to be applyed to the use of the Irish without any alteration may sufficiently detect that Charter which has the City of Dublin instead of London 3. The method of sending to Ireland the Laws made here besides what appears upon the face of the Record 6. Feb may satisfie any Body that 't was only a Writ which went along with a Charter or Charters of Laws passed in Parliament here 4. This Writ was before any confirmation of the English Liberties by H. 3. other than general at his Coronation and therefore bating such Confirmation the Charter of Liberties then sent into Ireland must have been King John's which if it be read according to the due distinction of Periods and that Translation which the course of Records both before and after enforces and which the prevalence of Truth has obliged Dr. Brady to yeild to the giving up his whole Controversie with Mr. Petyt and the Author of Jani Anglorum Facies Nova makes express Provision for the City of London all Cities Burroughs and Vills of the Kingdom of England to enjoy all their Liberties and Free-Customs and among the rest to be of or to be represented in the Common Council of the Kingdom But Ireland had no City of London to claim this Privilege nor could any City of Ireland be included any otherwise than as part of the Kingdom of England and therefore subject to the Laws which should be made here 2. This could not be as extensive to Ireland as 't was to England since it could not have extended beyond the English Pale there and such particular Districts as enjoy'd the English Laws of special Favour Therefore the Charter then sent by H. 3. could as to this Matter be no more than a Memorial of that Supreme Law according to which England with all the Dominions belonging to it was
King's Realm of England and of Ireland And it enacts the form of a Writ upon that Statute which was to be current in Ireland upon several accounts 1. By the Letter of that Law which was ordain'd for the Benefit of Merchants in Ireland as well as in England 2. If it had not been named the being transmitted to Ireland from a Parliament here was a sufficient ground for their observing it 3. Such observance was included in the terms of their Submission above one Hundred Years before 4. The Writ without any particular Provision became a legal and current Writ in Ireland by virtue of an Act of Parliament here 30 H. 3. which for the common Profit of the Land of Ireland and unity of the King's Lands provided that the Common Law Writs should have the same currency in Ireland that they have here Without enquiring what Records they have in Ireland of Statutes Staple from the 13 th of E. 1. when this Statute which settled them was sent thither 't is certain that from that time the English in Ireland were bound by it and so held to be in subsequent Statutes of this Realm confirming this Statute or supplying its defects But what pity 't is that neither Judge Bolton nor Mr. M. thought of an Act of Parliament in Ireland to confirm that Statute 12 E. 1. This was enacted in the Year 1284. which was above 350 Years before that fatal Aera of Innovations 1641 from whence it seems Calamities of all kinds are to be dated But I should think here is at least one positive Precedent before that time of an English Act of Parliament's binding the Kingdom of Ireland And to me it seems as plain that in the Judgment of the Parliament 13 E. 1. Ireland tho not named was bound by a Statute made here for which I shall refer him to the Interpretation then made of the extent of the Statutes of Gloster which had been enacted in the 6 th of that King's Reign Some would think those Statutes to have been no more than Ordinances made by the King and his Counsel only and that our Kings thus made Ordinances of that kind some may gather from Fleta who speaks of the King's Counsel in which not only erroneous Judgments were corrected but new Remedies provided yet Fleta speaks this of the King's Counsel in his Parliaments and thus tho' the Statute of Westm 2. seems to restrain the making that of Gloster to the King and his Council the Statute of Gloster it self shews that the Counsel was to be taken as acting in conjunction with the Prelates Earls and Barons and that under the word Barons the Commonalty were included as as lower Nobility or dignified by their Election to Parliament accordingly the Statute of Gloster says suitably to latter Writs of Summons the more discreet of the Kingd as well Great as Small were Summon'd So that the Statutes of Gloster were made as other Statutes 3 E. 1. by that King's Counsel and by assent of the Commonalty where the Lords were manifestly included under the word Counsel agreeably to the ancient form of Writs of error or other Writs returnable into Parliament before us and our Counsel in our Parliament or at our next Parliament after or at such a time there to do what the King shall think fit to ordain by advice of his Counsel For evidence that this did not exclude the Lords I may refer to the Roâ—â—s of Parliament of several Reigns and particularly to those of the 20 th and 21 st of E. 3. In the 20 th the Commons are desired to deliver such Petitions as were then ready to the Clerk of the Parliament which Petitions are said to be brought before the Great Men of the Counsel That they were but of the nature of a Committee to inform the King and Lords of the Bills or Petitions which came from the Commons appears by the Proceedings of the next Year when the Commons having made Petitions of an extraordinary nature the King answers He will advise with the Lords To return to the Statute of Gloster there the King by such advice as I have shewn made Laws for the amendment of his Realm and for the plenary exhibition of Right as the profit of the Regal Office requires and to remedy mischiefs dammages and disherisons suffer'd by the People of the Realm of England without the least mention of Ireland And yet we have the judgment of the Parliament in the 13 th of that King that Ireland was within the remedy of that Statute as part of the Realm of England as appears by this Preamble Where of late our Lord the King in the Quinzisme of St. John Baptist the Sixth of his Reign calling together the Prelates Earls Barons and his Counsel at Gloucester and considering that divers of this Realm were disherited by reason that in many cases where remedy should have been had there was none provided by him nor his Predeceâ—sors ordained certain Statutes right necessary and profitable for his People whereby the People of England and Ireland under his Government have obtained more speedy justice in their oppressions than they had before and certain Cases wherein the Law failed remain undetermined and some remained to be enacted that were for the reform of the oppressions of the People Our Lord the King in his Parliament after the Feast of Easter holden the 13 th of His Reign at Westminster caused many Oppressions of the People and defaults of the Laws for the supply of the defects of the said Statutes of Gloster to be rehearsed and made Statutes as will appear here following This rehearsal of the Grievances was for certain by the Petition of the Commons of this Realm and the Statutes there made as the Register of Writs has it were by the Common Counsel of the Kingdom And this Counsel not only declared Laws which were binding to Ireland but made new tho' Mr. Molineux will have it that from the time of Magna Chata to the 10 th of H. 7. no Laws were or are in force in Ireland unless allowed of by Parliament in that Kingdom except only such as are Declaratory of the Common Law of England and not Introductive of any new Law And whereas he is pleas'd to say As to such English Statutes as seem to comprehend Ireland and to bind it under the general words of all his Majesty's Dominions or Subjects whatever has been the opinion of private and particular Lawyers in this Point I am sure says he the Opinions of the Kings of England and their Privy Council have been otherwise I may say upon much better grounds if any King and His Privy Council did any thing to Warrant this Assertion the Judgment of E. 1. and His Council in Parliament was to the contrary and is of greater Authority And 't is to be remembred as I before shewed that
Concern it being for the encouraging of Purchasers and engaging the more Persons to a National Interest by Propriety in Land which till that time was in much fewer Hands because whoever purchased any part of an Estate had been liable to be charged with all the Rents and Services which lay upon the whole and there was one other necessary Provision against Alienations in Mortmain 4. The Precept to the Sheriff was to cause the Election to be made forthwith and to take care that the Parties were â—ound to be at Westminster by three Weeks after the Feast of St. John at the farthest The Day when the Parliament was holden was but 5 or 6 Days before which shews that 't is absurd to imagine that there should have been a Law made of that immediate consequence to all Owners of Land before the Knights of the Shire came up not only because they being obliged to be at Parliament by such a Day at the latest may well be supposed to have come 5 or 6 Days before the utmost extent of their time to avoid the Forfeitures of the Bonds which they us'd to give for their Appearance but chiefly because as 't is well known whenever a Law passes 't is in Judgment of Law held to have pass'd the first Day of the Session which Day might have been agreed at their former Meeting Nor is it absurd to believe that there might be a Summons to require the Sheriffs to secure Full Parliaments even tho the Days of Meeting and of Elections below might have been certain The true reason why so few Writs of Summons of those early times are to be found seems to be that once at least in a Year the Parliaments met of course The Confessor's Law speaks of the Calends of May as the fix'd Day In the 1st of E 1. the Custos of the Realm as appears above in the King's Absence issued Writs tho not for Elections to Parliament yet returnable into the Parliament to be holden next after Easter without mentioning any Day as if 't were commonly known but no Parliament being holden soon after Easter because of the King 's being out of the Land a Return into a Parliament appointed to sit after the King 's Landing was to a Day certain But that at the beginning of E. 1. the time of holding a Parliament was look'd upon as so fix'd that there was no need of Summons appears by that King's Letter to the Pope 3 E. 1. referring him to the Deliberation of the Peers of the Kingdom in a Parliament which used to be holden in England about the Octaves of the Resurrection of our Lord. 5. If the mention only of the Instance of the Great Men or Nobility be an Argument that the Law was then made before even the Knights of the Counties came up tho Summoned to Consult and Consent the many Laws which have pass'd immediately upon the King's Answer to the Petition of the Commons would argue as strongly that those Laws were made without the consent of the Lords but as in such case either they were included as part of the Community of the Kingdom or else the King answered by their Advice So at the making the Statute 18 E. 1. either the Commons were under the Word Magnates as the lower Nobility or Men dignified by being Senators or else the Great Lords finding themselves chiefly agrieved as being unable to pay their Debts because none would buy their Lands this Law might have pass'd chiefly â—t their desire But then since 't is manifest it was in Parliament 't was by the Consent of the Commons but I rather think that the Commons were then included under Magnates becâ—â—â—e I find them so in Times after thâ—s and that Petitions were made to them with as high Ascriptions as were given to the Great Lords In the 1st of E. 3. a Statute was made as one Record has it by the Common Council of the Kingdom as another by the King the Prelates Earls Barons and the Commonalty of the Realm and yet an Historian well conversant in the Records and common acceptation of Words in that Time speaking of this very Parliament and of the Queen Mother's coming to London with E. 3. her Son says Thither also Convened the whole Nobility of the Kingdom having been before Summoned to the holding a Parliament In after Times there are numbers of Petitions to the House of Commons from Persons of Quality from the City of London and others To the a Most Honourable or Right Honourable and Most Wise the Commons in this present Parliment Assembled The Honourable and Most Wise and the like c But some who will admit that the Knights of the Shire who indeed are in many Records call'd Grands of the Counties were part of the Magnates 17 E. 3. will have it that the Citizens and Burgesses were not because 1. They in those Times used to be distinguished by the Name of Commons from the Knights of the Shires 2. There 's no mention of any Summons tothem in the Records of 18 E. 1. when there was to the Knights of the Shires But for a full answer to this I desire it may be considered 1. That the Meeting 17 E. 1. appears by the Statute then made to be a Parliament that Dr. Brady himself has yielded that the Cities Boroughs and Cinque Ports and Vills had by King John's Charter right to be of the Common-Council of the Kingdom which is the Phrase most generally used in the Ancient Register of Writs to denote a Parliament 2. There were Boroughs long before the reputed Conquest As for instance St. Edmund's Bury or Burgh made a Borough in the Time of King Edmund confirmed in the Reigns of Cnute the Confessor W. 1. and other Kings 3. Boroughs frequently occur in Dooms-day Book that great Survey taken in the Reign of W. 1. and are mentioned as such in the Time of Edward the Confessor 4. No one Charter of ancient Times since W. 1. can be found giving any Borough right to send Members to Parliament but that has seem'd the consequent of being a Borough having a Gild for Merchandize and answering to the King or other chief Lord as one entire Body upon which account they appeared by Representation while individual Tenants were in the great Councils upon their Personal Right 5. That for asserting the Right of Boroughs to be represented in Parliament it generally was enough to plead that they were Boroughs yet one instance at least is to be found within two Reigns after the time of our present enquiry where a Borough Pleads or Alledges in Parliament that they had been made a Borough in King Athelstan's time and ever after had been represented in Parliament by two Members of their own chusing and this the then Parliament or the King's Council in it were so far from thinking improbable that upon that Borough's Allegation that the Charter
was lost they direct an enquiry with declared disposition to have it renewed 6. These Boroughs whether holding of the Crown in chief or of Great Lords were either Baronies or parts of Baronies upon the account of Knights Service or Honors by reason of other free Tenures and their Charters that they should hold freely and honourably as many of them run and thus the Members in Parliament who serv'd for these Baronies or Honours were part of the Baronage of the Kingdom Not but that sometimes Barony and Honour are used without distinction concerning them and thus that ancient Borough of Barnstaple which held of the Lord Tracy is in the same Record call'd both a Barony and an Honour Which Honour as appears by this instance was not limited to immediate Tenure of the Crown and that this was not derived from the grant of a reputed Conqueror might be proved by numbers of Authorities of which I shall here content my self with one out of Doomesday-Book In Norwic erant temp E. MCCCXX Burgenses c. Tota haec villa reddebat TRE 20 l. Regi Comiti 10 l. In novo Burgo XXXVI Burgenses and VI Anghci De hoc toto habebat Rex 2 partes Comes tertiam modo XLI Burgenses Franci in dominio Regis Comes Rogerus Bigot habet L. sic de aliis Tota haec terra Burgensium erat in Dominio Comitis Rad. concessit eam Regi in commune ad faciendum Burgum inter se Regem Ut testatur Vicecomes In Norwich there were in the time of Edward 1320. Burgesses All this Town in the time of King Edward yielded the King 20 l. and the Earl 10 l. In the new Borough there were 36 Burgesses and six of them English Of all thus the King had two parts and the Earl the third Now there are 41 Burgssses in the Kings demeasn and Earl Roger Bigoâ— has 50. and so of others And this Land of the Burgesses was in Earl c Ralphs Demeasâ— and he granted it to the King in common to make a Borough between him and the King As the Sheriff attests This Earl was Ralph Guader or Wader who continued Earl of Norfolâ— or at least of Norwich from within the Confessor's Reign till the 9 th or 10 th of W. 1. 7. The Freemen or at least they who had Borough holds in these or in some of them are in Doomsday-Book called Barons as particularly in the Borough of Warwick Et in Burgo de Warwic habet Rex in Dominio suo CXIII Domus Barones Regis habent CXII de quibus omnibus Rex habet geldam And in the Borough of Warwick the King has in his demeasm 113 Hoâ—ses and the Kings Barons have 112. of all which the King has Aid 8. They who were interested in the Government of these Boroughs and had Right to look after their common concerns could not but be Barons as properly as the Free hold Tenants of Lords of Mannors Freeholders who were Judges in the County Courts and the Freemen of London who are call'd Barons in several Records and other undoubted Authorities and the Barons of the Cinque Ports Of Dover in particular Dooms-day Book says in the time of King Edward it yielded 18 l. of which King Edward had two parts and Earl Godwin the 3. And a Charter c to this Port in the beginning of King John's Reign confirms to his Men of Doura the Confessor's Charter together with the Charters of W. 1. and other Kings after the reputed Conquest 9. If 't is to be thought that no Citizens and Burgesses were at the Parliament 17 E. 1. because no Summons appears for other Commons besides the Knights of the Shires by the same reason 't is to be thought that none of the Great Lords were there no Summons to them appearing 10. In the Writs for chusing Knights of the Shires there was no occasion to mention the choice of others and thus 12 E. 2. Only the Earls Barons and Commonalty of the Counties are spoken of as granting an 18 th part of their Goods but they would be very much deceiv'd who should think that no others were at that Parliament for the same Record shews that the Clergy granted a 10 th and the Cities and Boroughs a 12 th 11. 'T is very probable that at that time the Cities and Boroughs had the Writs directed to them in particular to be return'd by their Headborough or other Officer or else by the Community there Thus in the 14 th of King John a Summons to the Army is sent to the Headborough and Honest Men of Canterbury so to Dover Rochester Gildford and a great many other Places And the very next Year particular Writs are sent to the Honest Men of Canterbury the Mayor and Barons of London the Mayor and Honest Men of Winchester c. and so to all the Boroughs and Demesns of the Crown not only referring them to the Justice or Custos of the Realm but desiring an Aid of them which Mr. M. must agree to have been desired in as true a Parliamentary Meeting as those which he cites of the time of H. 3. in relation to Ireland This I hope may not be thought an unprofitable digression from the supposed Ordinance 17 E. 1. but may sufficiently evince by what Authority it must have been made if there were any such of that time and that the King and his Counsel pretended not to settle the State of a Dominion annex'd to the Crown of England without consent of the States But tho' the King's Counsel did not then act in Parliament matters otherwise than Parliamentarily yet 't is certain that they did exercise an Ordinary Jurisdiction in relation to Ireland as well as to England either as Committees or Tryers of Petitions appointed by the Lords or otherwise tho' the bringing a Cause from the Lords in Ireland to the House of Lords here is one of the circumstances in the present juncture of Affairs which seems to require Mr. M's learned Disquisition In the Bundle of Petitions to the Parliament in the time of E. 1. there are some endorsed as broâ—ght before the King some before all the Council and as the Method of following times explains this Matter there had been appointed Receivers and Tryers of Petitions concerning Ireland for several are receiv'd from thence and authoritatively Answered There 's one from Jeffery de Geymul who complains of the Barons of the Exchequer in Ireland for sending within his Jurisdiction a Commission of enquiry who Sold Pollards to the prejudice as he alledged of the Franchise which H. 2. had granted to the Ancestors of his Wife Maud de Lacy. This Commission was manifestly founded upon the Record of the Statute made here as is shewn above enrolled in the Exchequer of Ireland by Order from hence This the Barons there obey'd and held that by Virtue of that they might cause Commissions of Enquiry to
be executed even in Palatinates nor does it appear that the King's Council in Parliament disallowed of their Proceeding â— for nothing was done upon this â—etâ—tion any more than referring it to the next Parliament In the Case of one Allen Fitzwaren they Ordered a Writ from the Chancellor of England to require the Justice of Ireland to examine whether a Judgment about Title of Land had been given while a Man was absent and under the King's Protection requiring that if any thing was done contrary to Protection it should be amended in due manner And as the Lords in Parliament then exercis'd a Jurisdiction over Ireland it appears that out of it the High Admiral of England had Conuâ—ance of all maritime Causes as well throughout Ireland as England from the time then beyond the memory of Man which must relate to the general Prescription which is at this day as far since as the beginning of R. 1. Son to H. 2. That during the Reign of E. 1. Irel. was govern'd as a part of England or appurtenant to it and that the Laws made here wanted no other Publication than what was in obedience to the Great Seal of England affixed to Writs and Charters or Exemplifications of our Acts of Parliament by Authority from hence I think may be beyond dispute which might excuse my not dwelling upon the unfortunate Reign of E. 2. and yet there are some evidences not to be neglected of England's being then possess'd of its ancient Authority over Ireland and that tho' at least from the 3 d. of that King's Reign Mr. M. supposes that they had a regular Legislature in Ireland In the 10 th of that King the English in Ireland petitioned him for a Constitution that a Parliament should be holden there once a Year Upon this and other things then desired the King under the Great Seal of England commands the Justice of Ireland to Summon a Parliament there to consider what was sit to be done and to certifie the result into England upon which the King declared that he would by the advice of his Counsel ordain what should be sitting but nothing more appears of that matter which was the farthest step towards settling an Annual Parliament in Ireland In the 12 th of that King an Act of Parliament was made in England with this Preamble Forasmuch as divers People of the Realm of England and of the Land of Ireland have hereto fore many times suffered great Mischiefs Damage and Disherisons by reason that in some Cases where the Law failed no Remedy was ordained and also forasmuch as some points of the Statutes heretofâ—re made had need of Exposition our Lord King Edward Son to King Edward desiring that full Right may be done to his People at his Parliament holden at York the third Week after the Feast of St. Michael the 12th Year of his Reign by the Assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and the Commonalty of his Realm there assembled hath made these Acts and Statutes following the which he willeth to be observ'd in his said Realm and Land Though Ireland is in some sense part of the Realm of England yet here 't is distinguished as a Land intended to be bound tho it had no Commonalty of its own to represent it in Parliament and there is new Remedy provided where the Law had failed as well as the explaining what was Law before that part at least which creates a Forfeiture of Wine and Victuals sold by any Officer appointed to look after the Assises of them was absolutely new This Statute was transmitted to Ireland by the following Writ under the Great Seal of England and the Name of the Party who received it is enter'd upon Record Rex Cancel suo Hibern ' Salutem Quaedam statuta per nos in Parl. nostro nuper apud Ebor ' convocato de assensu Prel Com. Bar. totius Communitatis regni nostri ibid ' existentis ad Commun util regni nostri ac terrae Hibern ' edita vobis sub sigillo nostro mittimus consignata Mandantes quod Stat illa in dicta Cancel lariâ custodiri ac in rotulis ejusd Cancel irrotulari sub sigillo nostro quo utimur in Hiberniâ in forma patenti exemplificari ad singulas placeas nostras in ter praed singuloâ— comitat ejusd ter mitti facias brevia nostra sub dicto sigillo minist nostris placearum illar Vicecom dict Com. quod statuta illa coram ipsis publicari ea in omnibus singulis suis artic quantum ad eor singulos pertinet â—irmiter faciant observari Teste R. apud Clarendon 10 die Sept. An. quarto decimo The King to his Chancell of Ireland Greeting We send you under our Great Seal certain Statutes made by us in our Parliament lately called together at York with the Assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and all the Commons of our Kingdom there assembled for the Common Vtility of our Kingdom and Land of Ireland Commanding you that those Statutes be kept in the Rolls of the said Chancery to be enroll'd and exemplified in the Form of a Patent under our Seal which we use in Ireland and thaâ— you cause it to be sent to every one of our Places in the said Land and every County of the same And our Writs under our said Seal commanding our Officers of those Places and Sheriffs of the said Counties to cause those Statutes to be published before them and in all and singular their Articles which to every one of them appertain to be firmly observ'd Teste the King at Clarendon the 10th of Sept. in the 14th of his Reign In the same Roll there 's another Writ of the same Form dated at Nottingham 20 Nov. sending to the Chancellor of Ireland the Stature of York and another made before at Lincoln These Entries explain the general Transmissions and shew what was to be done by the Justice of Ireland in order to the publication of Laws made in Parliaments here and sent to him but yet he had no need nor authority to call a Parliament in Ireland for the publishing any Law made here unless particularly required under the Great Seal of England Yet I cannot but admire the force of Mr. M's Imagination in framing an Argument on that very Year that those Statutes were sent to Ireland That the Parliament of England did not take upon them to have any jurisdiction in Ireland because the King sent his Letters-Patents to the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland commanding that the Irish Natives might enjoy the Laws of England concerning Life and Member to which he had been moved by his Parliament at West-minster which is as much as to say they used no Jurisdiction because they did That after this time that King and his Parliament exercised Jurisdiction over Ireland appears by the Ordinance made for the State of Ireland in a Parliament held on the Octaves of St. Martin in the
desire or expectation of a Ratification there And whether even their Parliaments are not threatned if they send false intelligence to England For full proof that in this Ordinance the Authority of the Parliament of England was reteâ—â—â—d and asserted I must observe to Mr. M. that this Noble Charter to Ireland is but according to the usual Methods of Publishing Acts of Parliament put under the great Seal and thereby made a Patent or Charter but 't was an Ordinancâ— or Act of Parliament for the State of Ireland as may be seen by the Statute Roll. 3. After this Statute mentioning Parliaments in Ireland the Parliament here exercised the same Authority in making Ordinances and Laws for Ireland and the King and his Council held Ireland to be bound by those Laws as part of the Realm of Eng land A Statute made in the 36 th of that King provides that no Lord of England nor any other Person of the Realm except the King and Queen take purveyance on pain of Life and Member and takes from Mayors and Constables of Staples all Jurisdiction in Criminal Causes but I do not find any mention of Ireland and yet that both King and Council judged that the publishing them in Ireland would avail as much as the publishing them in England appears by the Writ to the Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire requiring him to publish the Statutes and Ordinances then made by the King with the common assent of the Prelates great Men and Commonalty in his full Parliament at Westminster and to return the Writ with an Account of the Execution of it to the King in his Chancery This Writ is tested by the King And in the same manner commands are sunt to the Justice of Ireland But notwithstanding this Transmission to Ireland of Statutes made here one of which is about Purveyance which is at least the Second of this kind made to bind Ireland Mr. M. may if he pleases hold that this was not Law in Ireland till 18. H. 6. But after all I would intreat the favour of Mr. M. to inform me whether according to himself such Acts of Parliament in Ireland were needful to Confirm Laws made here when if he puts a right construction upon the Record above cited 9 E. 1. and of the Record 50 E. 3. of a Writ from hence for the Expences of the Men of Ireland who last came over to serve in Parliament in England The Men of Ireland us'd to send their Representatives hither to the making the Laws by which they were to be bound till this sending of Representatives out of Ireland to the Parliaments of England was found in process of time to be very troublesome and inconvenient But whatever Mr. M. may imagin in this matter that sort of representation of Ireland in the Parliaments of England was no more than they had in the time of H. 3. and have 't is likely generally had to this day of persons entrusted to sollicit the Affairs of Ireland upon their numerous Petitions to the King and his Council in Parliament for which Receivers and Triers used to be appointed or other matters of concern to them But whether they were chosen by their Parliaments when they had them or elsewhere their Expences as appears by the Record cited by Mr. M. were levied by Authority under the Great Seal of England But I will shew a Record of the time of H. 3. when I will agree that they had Nuntii Messengers deputed as 't is likely from a Parliament in Ireland H. 3. in his Writ or Letter to the Barons of Ireland takes notice that by the advice of his People he had given a favourable answer to some of their requests made known by persons deputed from them But because those persons alledged that their Instructions were to insist upon all the particulars of their Requests the King sends a Precept to the Justice of Ireland under the Great Seal of England requiring him as it seems to summon a Parliament for he was carefully to open the matters before the Barons of Ireland and to know what they would give for the Liberties they desired The Justice had no Authority to have those Liberties setled in a Parliament there but was to signify their Answer to the King upon which the King would do what should be fitting without taking any Right from them That this was to be done in Parliament here and that the Messengers from Ireland were no Members of that Council of the King's People which sent the Answer is beyond dispute nor is there colour to believe that any of their Deputies or Representatives had in any King's Reign more to do here than those of the time of H. 3. had But surely no Man but Mr. M. will conclude that such Instances or the mention of the Consent or Petition of the Irish in some Particulars manifestly shew that the King and Parliament of England would not enact Laws to bind Ireland without the concurrence of the Representatives of that Kingdom Since therefore I have proved to the contrary from H. 2's first acquisition till towards the latter end of E. 3. and Mr. M. declares that he will consider the more antient Precedents of English Statutes which particularly name Ireland and are therefore said to be of force in that Kingdom I might rest here did not Mr. M. take notice of the Statute of the Staple 2 H. 6. and the Resolution of the Judges upon it 1 H. 7. in such a manner as makes it requisite to be set in a truer Light The Merchants of Waterford pursuant to the Licence granted them by E. 3. and confirmed by E. 4. had carried Wool contrary to the ordinary provision of the Statute 2 H. 6. which being seized by the Treasurer of Calâ—is as forfeited part to the King and part to himself as discoverer The Merchants by Bill in the Exchequer here pray restitution 'T is to be observed that the Act upon which the Wool was seized tho it creates a forfeiture of the value of Wool Butter Cheese and other staple Commodities carried from England Ireland and Wales to other parts than Calais and gives the Informer a 4 th of what shall be carried contrary to that Act from any County of the Realm makes no mention of Ireland as to the Informers share and therefore his Interest could bear no debate unless Ireland had been included and the Counties of Ireland were Counties within the Realm of England But Mr. M. says the 2 d Question was Whether the King could grant his Licence contrary to the Statute and especially where the Statute gives half the Forfeiture to the Discoverer But he might have observed that the Statute has an express saving of the King's Prerogative which goes thrô the whole and certainly related to the King 's granting Licences to the contrary in some particular
in the same bottom as the King does in England I say almost on the same bâ—ttom for the Irish Parliament have not only a Negative as the King has in England to whaâ—ever Laws the King and his Priâ—y Councils of both or either Kingdom shall lay before them but have also a liberty of proposing to the King and his Privy Council here such Laws as the Parliament of Ireland think expedient to be pass'd which Laws being thus proposed to the King and put into form and transmitted to the Parliament here of Ireland according to Poyning's Act must be pass'd or rejected in the very words even to a little as they are laid before our Parliament we cannot alter the least Iota In this Narrative of their Constitution under that Law he has omitted the mentioning what is very material that the Kings answer to what they propoâ—e is to be transmitted under the great â—eal of England and this is to be the Licence and Authority for the holding a Parliament in Ireland and therefore their Acts of Parliament since that settlement mention their being held by Authority under the Great Seal of England And there were two obvious ends and effects of this Law as Mr. M. himself owns 1. The preventâ—on of any thing passing in the Parliament of Ireland surreptitiously to the prejudice of the King or the English Interest of Ireland to which I must add or of England 2. To take from the Irish there all colour of pretence of holding Parliaments as an independent Kingdom by virtue of any Authority within that Land But how the King's Prerogative in the Legislature was advanced by this I do not understand since long before as well as notwithstanding this supposed Constitntion of an Independent Parliament held by Authority from the Great Seal of England the King had and has the Prerogative not only to dissolve the Irish Parliaments at his Pleasure but never to call any which this Gentleman ought to fear least such a claim as he makes might occasion and I would gladly know what part of their Constitution provides for the frequent holding of Parliaments in Ireland yet frequency of Parliaments in England is an undoubted part of the Fundamental Constitution of the English Monarchy Farther is it any advance to the Prerogative in the Legislature that a Prince who has the full exercise of an absolute Legislature at home is only possessed of a Provision against having any attempt made to the lessening that his settled and indubitable Prerogative I must needs say this Gentleman has a way of arguing beyond my apprehension for I cannot see the consequence how the Prerogative should be advanced if as he will have it the Irish Parliament is put almost on the same bottom as that the King stands on in England if it be so I should think it a lessening of the Prerogative to have an Irish Parliament almost coordinate with him which Mr. M. is very fearful least an English Parliament should pretend to And I as little understand the reason he gives why the Parliament of Ireland stands almost upon the same bottom with the King for says he they have not only a Negative Vote as the King has in England but liberty to propose yet the Laws must be pass'd or rejected without alteration This I take to be Foreign to the bottom on which either the King or that Parliament stands If it be meant that they are in a manner as absolute in this negative and liberty of purposing as the King is in England since it relates only to Law first desired from Ireland either by the Privy Council or Parliament there this Constitution of their Parliament is so far from giving them a negative to the Laws pass'd in England with declared intention to bind them in Ireland that the Authority of England is wove into the very Constitution and the Parliaments of Ireland own that Authority by their very Sitting and Enacting Mâ— M. having represented that Constiâ—ution of their Parliaments by which he thinks they stand almost upon the same bottom as the King did here makes this strong assumption If therefore the Legislature of Ireland stand on this foot in relation to the King and to the Parliament of Ireland and the Parliament of England do remove it from this bottom and assume it to themselves where the King's Prerogative is much narrower and as it were reversed for there the King has only a negative Vote I humbly conceive 't is an encroachment on the King's Prerogative But he might consider 1. That as here by the Parliament he takes Lords and Commons without the King he mistakes the Fact in relation to their exercice of Power for they do not assume to themselves the Power of making any Law but with and under the King 2. Neither do they in the highest exercice of their Power take from the Irish any thing allowed or directed by Poyning's Law or any other Constitution 3. They do but assert the Chief Prerogative of the Crown of England by which due consent being bad our Kings give Laws to this Realm and all the Dominions belonging to it 4. The ancient course of the Proceedings of the Parliaments of England and their making all manner of Provisions for the Government of Ireland evince that Poyning's Law was rather an Indulgence to the English there directing a Method for their maintaining the face of a Legislature among themselves than any restraint of Power before vested in the Parliaments of England And after all this Law was never as I take it confirm'd by a Parliament of England I must not here omit the consequences which Mr. M. draws from the Parliament of England's pretending Power to impose any one Law upon Ireland 1. That 't will naturally introduce the Taxing them without their consent 2. That 't will leave the People of Ireland in the greatest confusion imaginable that they are not permitted to know which is the Supreme Authority which they are bound to obey whether the Parliament of England or that of Ireland or both and that the uncertainty is or may be made a pretence for disobedience 3. That 't will be highly inconvenient for England may make the Lords and People of Ireland think they are not well used and may drive them into Discontent 1. Not here to consider how far the Lordship of the Land of Ireland may infer the Taxing it if it should refuse to concur as it ought to its own Preservation since the Law of necessity is no farther to be used or considered than while the necessity is apparent I may say that this is no consequence to be apprehended and that as the Right of Taxing does not follow from the Right of Governing and the Nature of the Government depends upon the first Submission and that Interpretation and Confirmation of it which both the governing Nation and the governed have put upon it I must infer with deference to the National Authority that the
subjugandi ab ecclesia Romanâ— licentiam impetravit Pro dilatandis Ecclesiae terâ—inis c. V. p. 129. Holy Church shall be free c. If our Church be free and absolute within it self our State must be so likewise P. 10 11. P. 28. Of the Submission of the Irish to H. 2. V. p. 10. Cited by him P. 28. Mat. Par. ib. Urbes Castella quae Rex in sua receperat sub fideli custodia deputavit P. 29 Hoveden f. 323. F. 324. Int. Decem script Bromton de eod An. Vid. Inf. In truth he was but Viceroy V. p. 10. Jurantes ei haeredibus suis P. 154. a Hoveden t. 312. Sicut tenuit antequam dominus Rex intravit Hib. b Aâ— 1175. c Gir. Cambr expug Hib. c. 34. de An. 1177. Anno primo quo illustrissimus Anglor R. Hib. triumphâ—tor ipsam insulam acquisivit d Benedict Abbas p. 69. â—ited in Dr. Bradey's Append f. 39. Rot. Claus 7. Jo. m. 5. Nomine Baroniae Davis Rep. f. 38. Of the Antiquity of the Right of the Crown of England to the Land of Ireland recognized by Parliaments there Stat. 11 Eliz. Ses 3. c. 1. f. 273. Graston de an ante Christum 375. De eod an Irish Stat. f. 493. P. 4. Of the comparison bètween W. 1. and H. 2. and of the stile and notion of Conquest Davis 's Rep. â— 41. Case de Tanistry P. 12 13. a Vid. Mr. Petyt's Pref. to the Rights of the Kingdom Mic. 2. Jo. The same transcribed more at large in Hales's Collect. in Bib. Hospitâ—â— Lincoln b Glanvil de legibus lib. 7. c. 1. Vid. ib. aut habet haereditatem tantum aut questum tantum c P. 14. d Vid. Pref to Davis's Rep. The first after the Norman Conquest that was stiled Lord of Ireland Girald Camb. Hibern expugnat Vid. Reflections upon a treasonable Opinion against signing the voluntary Association F. 14. Puff de Jure Gentium VII 7. 3. Pictav gesta W. Ducis Norm Regis Anglor f. 181. Ord. Vital f. 492. * Non expectabat vesanus Anglus quid publica electio statueret Pictav ut memini vel Ordir Vital †Flor. Wig. Fidelitat juraverunt quibus ipse foedus pepigit S. Dunelm F. 195. Hoveden F. 258. Rad. de Diceto Col. 480. Bromton Col. 958. ð„ ð„ ð„ ð„ ð„ Ordir Vital F. 503. Bib. Cotton sub Effigie Claudii A. 3. * Bib. Cot. sup Volumus concedimus Vid. Selden Dissert ad Fletam de confirmatione 4 o Regni sui Ekal vid. etiam Mat. Par. Addit de Fretherico Ab. Sancti Albani extorquente cautionem juratoriam Vid. God's ways of disposing of Kingdoms P. 20. The sense of Parliaments in Ireland in relation to Conquest Stat. Hib. 28 H. 8. c. 3. F. 64. F. 65. Stat. 11. Eliz. Ses 3. c. 1. F. 37. 11 J. c. 1. * 12 13 14 J. 1. c. 5. * Act for Subsidies 11 C. 1. 10 C. 1. Ses 1. c. 3. and Ses 3. c. 3. Nota But one Imperial Crown 14 15 C. 2. Non hic habent Milites Parliamenti P. 117. P. 117. P. 118. Of Mr. M's comparison between Scotland and Ireland and of the Annexation of Ireland to the Crown of Engl nd P. 147. Vid. Moor's Rep. Vid. Ben. Ab. in Bib. Cot. de Homagio Regis Scot. H. 2. a Vid. Answ to C. J. Herbert on the dispensing Power and particularly the Sherivalty of the County of N. for which some have supposed that the Statute in that case was dissensed with A Comparison between Ireland and Wales b Mr. M. M. 165. c 34 H. 8. c. 13. Dâ—â—â—s 's Rep. f. 41. b. Should be in the plural number Davis f. 67. le Case del County Palatine F. 67. Comparison between Ireland and the County Palatine of Chester Rot. Pat. 9. H. 3. m. 9. d. Rot. Pat. 44. H. 3. m. 1. d. Pat. 6. E. 1. m. 6. de 1 5ma in Com. Cestr Pat. 20. E. 1. m. 6. de 1 5ma Regi c. P. 148. Some object that Ireland is to be look'd upon only as a Colony from England Year-book of E. 2. f. 613. * 19 H. 6. F. 12. b. 4. Inst F. 212. †Vaughan's Rep * Of the Jurisdiction of the King's Bench of England â—ver that of Ireland P. 13. Vib. ib. the Lord Coke seems to infer from the subordination c. P. 13. Of the ordinary Jurisdiction of the K's Bench of England over that of Ireland * P. 164 165. Interesse judiciis Curiae Regis * Rot. Claus 37 H. 3. m. 4 d. Hibn. Et mandatum est Justiciariis Hibâ—rniae quod recâ—rda cum omnibus admâ—iculis coram â—o venire faciant Rot. Claus 37 H. 3. m. 15 Recorda penes Remem in scaccar Placita coram Rege 20 E. 1. Vid. inf of Petitions in Parl. Temp. E. 1. P. 133. P. 132. P. 133. The ordinary Jurisdiction of the Lords and the King's Bench an incident to the Superiority of the Crown of England * P. 3. P. 125 126. Roâ— Parl. 8 H. 6. Of the Annexation of Ireland to the Crown of England P. 41 42. P. 44. P. 127. P. 149. Vid. Davis Rep. f. 61. citing 28 H. 8. c. 2. La corone d' engleterre en plusors auters Acts de Parl. est appel Imperial Crown la corone de Ireland est appendant a ceo 28 H. 8. c. 20. unite knit al. Imperial corone D' engleterre 33 H. 1. c. 1. 33 H. 8. c. 1. a 2 Eliz. c. 1 â— 2. 28 H. 8. c. 2. 28 H. 8. c. 5. P. 166. 11 Jac. 1. c. 1. 10 C. 1. Sess 3. c. 3. Q. Whether of England or Ireland neither being named P. 55. P. 127. P. 157. P. 127. P. 128. Vid. the printed Statute-Book ending with R. 3. and Reflections upon a treasonable Opinion against signing the Association In the beginning of the Statutes of H. 7. in French P. 127. P. 128. Stat. 34 35 H. 8. c. 3. 1 Eliz. c. 1. P. 83. The Power of England not departed from but duly exercised P. 57 58. P. 62. P. 63. P. 40. * Vid. Bened. Ab. in Bib. Cott. al. Author Davis Rep. F. 64. b. P. 148. * Vid. leges W. 1. de â—ide c. Regi domino â—uo * Vid. Sandford's Genealogical Hist referring to a Charter in the Cotton Library Sigillum Johannis filii Regis domini Hiberniae P. 41. Vid. Sandford sup * Polidore Virg. f. 255. Habito concilio c. de concilii sententia honoribus atque fortunis privatus Thorn in t decem script col 1868. Fuit citatus accusatus judicio coram paribus suis per eos legitimè tanquam proditor condemnatus Mat. Par. Addit f. 281. b Ib. F. 236. Oxoniam profectus c. Johannem fil totius Hiberniae regulum facit c P. 41 42. a Rot. â—â—t 9. J. p. 1. m. 2. n. 8. Ad voluntatem consilium dilector fidelium nostror Com. W. Maresc
so far back to shew how it first became a Kingdom I think I have made it evident that he has fail'd in his first Undertaking 2. 'T will be as evident that he is no less injurious to the Right of the English Nation than unhappy in the comparison where he maintains that England may be said much more properly to be conquer'd by W. 1. than Ireland by H. 2. tho in this he has the Authority of Sir John Davis I will agree that the word Conquest was in the times both of W. 1. and H. 2. of a very innocent signification for which he rightly cites Sir Henry Spelman and might have observed a much greater and antienter Authority in a Record of the time of King John referr'd to by Mr. Petyt wherein a younger Brother in a Suit between him and his elder Brother about Title to Land pleads that his Father had it de Conquestu suo and gave it him according to the distinction in Glanvil who wrote in the time of H. 2. between Questus the same with Conquestus and Haereditas 'T is certain the word Conquestus did not in that age imply any thing of that Power which a Prince or State might acquire by Force or Terror of Arms over another Prince or State and therefore I shall make no use of his Admission that H. 2. took Conquestor Hiberniae into his stile contrary to the Authority of Mr. Selden cited in his Margin and to which I cannot but subscribe In truth tho H. 2. was stiled Lord of Ireland I am very well assured none can be found where he is stiled Conquestor Yet Girald an Author of that time calls him Triumphator Hiberniae which is tantamount to Conqueror But since Conquestor when first used signified no more than one who came to a Right which he claimed not by hereditary Descent according to which W. 1. acknowledged that he was made or created King of the English by hereditary Right that is as has elsewhere been shewn and may be more at large was duly let in to the Inheritance of the Crown however the word Conquestor has been in following ages applied both to W. 1. and to H. 2. Let 's consider a little 1. Whether the English Nation ever submitted to W. 1. as a Conqueror in a sense of larger signification than 't was antiently used 2. Whether the Irish Nation submitted to H. 2. or to any other of our Kings more absolutely than the English did to W. 1. 1. Mr. Molineux agrees that E. 3. was the first that us'd the Aera of post Conquestum which indeed was no more than to distinguish the Edwards after the time of W. 1. from the three Edwards which reign'd in England before that time but no body that I know of has yet pretended that W. 1. ever assumed the stile of Conqueror and I dare say no one Author of that time printed or in Manuscript ascribes it to him I must own in some of his Charters he says he gain'd the Kingdom by the Sword having subdued Harold and his Accomplices but besides that Puffendorf's Assertion is undeniable that after a Prince is overcome in a just War till the Subjects consent the State of War continues and there is no Obligation nor Faith and so no Dominion W. 1. did not come to civilize and subdue the People to Laws but to turn out 1 st An Usurper upon the Right of the People upon whom he had imposed himself without any true Election notwithstanding what several antient Authors have affirmed And 2 dly An Usurper upon the Right which W. 1. had by a full and a formal Election he having been elected Successor in the life time of the Confessor which I may hereafter shew with all the Circumstances but shall at present refer only to three Authorities out of many William of Poictiers an Author who lived in the very time informs us that the Confessor sent an Embassy into Normandy suorum assensu by the assent of his People to assure him of the Succession And Ordericus Vitalis has these words Edwardus nimirum propinquo suo W. D. N. primo per Rodbertum Cant. summum Pontisicem postea per eundem Heraldum integram Anglici regni mandaverat concessionem ipsumque concedentibus Anglis fecerat totius juris sui haeredem Edward sent an Embassy to William Duke of Normandy first by Robert Archbishop of Canterbury afterwards by Harold himself acquainting him with the entire Grant of the Kingdom of England and had made him Heir of all his Right with the Consent of the English Which shews in what sense Ingulph who was Secretary to W. 1. is to be understood when he says Eum sibi succedere in regnum voce stabili sancivit That the Confessor with a stable Voice ordained or appointed him to succeed him in his Kingdom 'T is not to be questioned but Ingulph who was an Anglo-saxon and well knew that a King could not dispose of the English Crown without the consent of the States of the Realm would be understood by this that the Confessor's voice or nomination had a Parliamentary Sanction when one of the Norman writers looks upon Harold as a mad-man for not staying to see what a publick Election should determine That W. 1. came only to turn out an Usurper is not all but having done this with a great force the People of England would not receive him for King upon his Victory till they had treated and agreed with him in a Convention at Berkhamstead where as Authors concur foedus pepigit he struck a League with them and was not only obliged to maintain the English Laws in virtue of a mutual Contract but part of the Contract with the Prelats and the Nobility of the Kingdom was That he should be crown'd as the manner of the English Government requires From those Authors who give the heads of his Oath administred by Aldred Archbishop of York 't is plain that he was crown'd according to the standing Ritual in use from the Coronation of King Ethelred and continued to the Reign of H. 1. without any material alteration And Authors as well as the Ritual shew that the people were solemnly ask'd whether they would have him to reign over them to which they exprest their consent in such terms as implied a Grant But the Coronation Oath being only in general terms that King was obliged once at least if not oftner to swear expresly that they should enjoy the Benefit of the Confessor's Laws that Digest of so much of the common Law of England as was in his time thought necessary to be reduced to writing to which some additions were made by that King in Parliament for the benefit of the English That there was nothing like this in the submission of the people of Ireland to H. 2. has appeard above and that he acted according to the import