promises of gratitude and thankfulness after they are had and received to have given him in perpetuity as much or a great deal more than ever the Pâ—aeemption Pourveyance or Composition for it would have amounted unto and imprecated curses and woes as many or more then the plagues of Egypt to have fallen upon them and their after generations neglecting it for it is ever to be understood that the Subsidies Assessements and other Ayds given to the Kings and Princes of England by their Subjects and People in Parliament or at any time taken or otherwise received by them have been more with respect unto their own particular Estates included in the safety of his greater and his granting them free and general pardons not only for offences criminal committed one against another but for offences committed against the King and incroachments and intrusions upon the royal Revenves and for his Royal protection and defending of them and preserving them in their peace and plenty then as for any retributions or acknowledgements of their favours shewed to any or many in particular There being as much reason for the King to expect and receive the presents or acknowledgements of his people as it was for King Solomon to take his presents sine quibus saith the great and excellently learned Grotius Reges Orientis adire non solebant without which the people were accustomed not to come unto their Kings and continued long after to be a custome as may be understood by the Kings or Wise men coming out of the East to worship and adore our blessed Saviour at his birth and is at this day not disused in the Africk and Asiatick Countries And did not nor ought to dull or lessen the alacrity and payment of other necessary duties and tributes when as Solomon besides the provisions of his Houshold brought and served in every year by a rate and what he had of the Governors of the Countrey which if they were not provisions or conducing thereunto might be some other Tributes and did receive Gold and Tributes or Customs of the Merchant men of the Trafâ—ick of the Spice Merchants For if it hath been reason every where and amongst all Nations where either subjection and duty to superiors or humane prudence had any entertainment or abode to take as much care as may be of general and publick safeties when the safeties of particulars are included and comprehended in them and to be willing in the common or publick calamities of a Warre already fastned upon them or hope to prevent them readily to contribute to their Princes or permit them to take provisions sometimes without any price at all and at other times but at reasonable prises in order to their preservation or repelling of evils or inconveniences which would a great deal more molest or trouble them or to give him or his Army free quarter as the men of Israel Juda did unto David their King or bring or send victuals and provisions to his Camp or marching Army and can think it no ill husbandry though they have but the day before paid contribution to the Enemy had much of their Cattel and Provisions taken away by the Enemy a Husband Brother or Sonne killed women and children slain and butchered and the bloody and dreadfull Scenes or Pageants of Warre every where to be seen heard of or lamented or to do as the Danes did lately to the unjustly invading Swedes give money to keep their houses from spoiling or burning It can be no less then reason to contribute something yearly to a King who not only keeps us from those and many other woes and miseries by land and by Sea but daily heapes and multiplies his blessings upon us in protecting and defending us and not only gave many of us our Vineyards but procureth us all to sit quietly under the shadow pleasure content and fruitfulness of our owâ— vines and by his care at home and abroad preserves us and our Estates in an envied peace and plenty And be the more willing to allow him his Praeemption and Compositions for Pourveyance which amounts not unto the two hundreth or five hundreth part and sometimes not the one thousand part or more of the expence and losses which warre and the many times not to be avoided unruliness and spoil thereof may bring upon them Unless like Ulisses Companions transformed into Swine by the accursed charms of a Cirâ—e or inticements of selfish or foolish interests for the maintenance of our vices and luxuries we should think it to be either Religion Duty Conscience Reason or Prudence to take all we can from a King who is the Guardian of all his people and a nursing Father to the Church which his Royal Progenitors Kings of England were so long agoe accustomed to rank amongst their principall cares as in the 23. year of the Reign of King Edward the first it was alledged in a pleading and allowed for law right reason that Ecclesia est infra aetatem in custodia Regis qui tenetur jura haereditates ejusdem manu tenere defendere the Church is as an Infant under age and in the custody of the King who is bound to defend and maintain its rights estates and hereditaments who governs by no Arbitrary will or power but by our known Lawes which are so excellent beyond all the Laws of other Nations so rational so binding and transcendent so carefully watching over the peoples liberties and proprieties such a Buckler Guard and strong Tower of defence unto them and poenal to all that shall but execute any unjust or illegall commands tending to the violation of them not to be denied by the most seditious and undutifull Subjects when they shall but be pleased to be friends and at peace with their reason and understanding as if by any divine punishment proceeding from an iratum Numen an angry and just God after ages should find England to be governed by a King or Prince as cruel as Nero or Commodus and as arbitrary and unruly as some of the Roman or Eastern Emperors have been there cannot untill the sword shall have cut the strings of our Magna Charta and silenced or banished the Laws be any oppression or evil happen to the people without the Balm of Gilead and remedies as quickly brought and found out by our Lawes as there can be any necessities or occasions of them Wherefore we should not like people altogether transported and carried out of humanity into a Lycanthropia or woolfish nature think it to be rationall honest or becoming us instead of every mans saying Domine quid retribuam Lord what shall I render thee for all thy benefits to make it the greatest of our care imployment and business not only to take from the King but keep all we can from him And if they would or could tell how to doe it without the just reproach of disloyalty dishonesty and villany should not do it in his
Praeemption Pourveyance or Compositions for it when it concerns him so much and so nearly in his honour and the daily bread and sustenance of himself and his Royal Family when he expendeth for want of his Pourveyances or compositions for them yearly more then he did when he enjoyed them as may appear by a just accompt and calculation lately made by his Majesties special command no less then seventy three thousand six hundred seaven pounds fourteen shillings and seaven pence in his Houshold and Stable provisions besides the extraordinaries of Carriages for his Navy Provisions and Ammunition and what would have been added unto it if he had as other Kings or Princes gone his Sommer Progress when the want of it is so unbecomming a King and the aspect of it when he had it was in CHAP. IV. The right use of the Praeemption and Pourveyance and Compositions for them SO lovely and very well imployed and canont by rules of truth reason and understanding be gainsaid by the most disffaected and worst of Subjects when they shall but please to take into their consideration That the magnificence and bounty of a King in his house and the method and manner used therein is no small part of the increase continuance and support of his power reverence honor and awe which are so necessary and essentiall to the good and well-being of a King and his People as they cannot be wanted but are and should be the adjuncts and concomitants of the Royall or Princely dignity and like Hypocrates Twins subsist in one another which the wisdome of the Antients as well as modern and all Nations and People under the Sun and even the naked wild and savage part of them have by a Jure Gentium and eternall Law of Nature derived from divine instinct allowance and patern in the infancy of the world and through all the times and ages of it so well approved as they could never think fit to lay aside or disuse the practise of it for it cannot be by any rule of reason supposed that the fifth Commandement being at the Creation of mankind after Gods own Image written in the heart of him and all his after Generations and justly accompted to be comprehended in those Precepts of the Law of Nature and the righteous Noah with which the world was blessed as well before the flood as afterwards and before the Children of Israel had received the Decalogue or ten Commandements in the dread and astonishment of Gods appearance to Moses in Mount Sinai there was not a distinction at the first and all along holden and kept betwixt Parents and Children and Kings or common Parents and their Subjects in the fear and reverence of Children to Parents and of Subjects to their Kings and Soveraigns when as Noah though preaching to the old world in vain and to no purpose as they made it was so mighty a man and so well beloved and observed as he could by Gods direction cause to be brought into the Ark two of every sort of the species of all irrationall living creatures in order to their preservation for the Generations which were to survive the threatned deluge which without some more then ordinary extent of power could not be compassed by him if he had been but an ordinary man or but one of the common people who hearkened not unto his preaching and had no better an opinion of his Ark or Floating-house then as a Dilirium or his too much adoring the Images of his own phantasie Pharaoh King of Egypt having those requisites and decorums which the Kings and Princes of those early dayes had appertaining to their Royall super-eminence and dignities could upon Josephs extraordinary deserts array him in fine linnen and silks put a gold chain about his neck make him to ride in his second Charriot and cause a Cry or Proclamation to be made before him that every man should bow the knee David that was but the Sonne of Jesse the Bethlemite and once a Keeper of his Fathers few sheep as his envying brother told him in the Wilderness or Common and was taken as God himself said from the Sheep-coat would not when he came to be King omit the dues and regalities which belonged unto Kings though he could in a gratefull acknowledgment say unto God Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hither but could think it comely and fitting for him as a King to dwell in a house of Cedars And King Solomon his Son who expending 7 years in the building of the Temple and House of God was thirteen years in building of his own house and another magnificent and stately house of the Forrest of Lebanon and another for the Queen his Wife which was the Daughter of Pharaoh had 300 shields of beaten gold three pound to every shield put into his house of the Forrest his sumptuous Throne of Ivory over-laid with the best gold the like whereof was not in any Kingdome drinking vessels and all the vessels of Gold in that house and kept that state and order in his Tables in the sitting of his servants at meat the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparrel and his Cup-bearers as the Queen of Sheba coming unto him with a very great Train was so much astonished thereat and the house that he had built as there was no more spirit in her and confessed that what she had seen with her own eyes was more by half then what was told her in her own Land All which being allowed by God as necessary honors for Kings conservations of respects and allurements to the obedience and esteem which were to be paid and performed by the people were not put in the Catalogue of that Prince and great Master of wisdomes failings or not walking in the wayes of God or doing that which was right in his eyes and keeping his Statutes and Judgements as his Father David did Neither were those Royal and great Feasts made long after by Ahasuerus which reigned from India unto Ethiopia over an hundred and seven and twenty Provinces to his Princes and Servants the Nobles and Princes of his Provinces for one hundre◠〈◊〉 eighty daies Or the state of that mighty King whe◠〈◊〉 shewed the honour of his Excellent Majesty when as white green and blue Hangings were fastned with cords of fine linnen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble with Beds of gold and silver upon a pavement of red blue white and black marble and gave them drink in vessels of gold according to the state of the King put under any note or character of blame But those and other due respects have so alwaies attended the world and the good order and government of it under Monarchy and Kings and Princes through all the changes and chances thereof as it may be taken to be as universall a Law of Nature and Custome or Nations as the duty and honor of
The Antiquity Legality Reason Duty and Necessity OF PRAE-EMPTION AND POURVEYANCE FOR THE KING OR Compositions for his Pourveyance As they were used and taken for the Provisions of the KINGS Houshold the small charge and burthen thereof to the PEOPLE and the many great Mischiefs and Inconveniences which will inevitably follow the taking of them away By FABIAN PHILIPPS Manilius 3 Perquè tot Aetates hominum tot tempora Annos Tot Bella varios etiam sub pace labores Virgil Aeneid lib. 8. Sic placida populos in pace regebat Deterior donec paulatìm Decolor Aetas Et Belli Rabies Amor successit habendi London Printed by Richard Hodgkinson for the Author and are to be sold by Henry Marsh at the sign of the Princes Arms in Chancery-Lane 1663. To the Right Learned and truely Noble Lord Christopher Lord Hatton Baron of Kirkby Knight of the Bath Governor of the Isle of Guarnesey and one of the Lords of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Council My Lord THE Holy Evangelist St. Luke in his Gospel and History of the Acts of the blessed Apostles when he inscribed or Dedicated it to his friend Theophilus hath given us to understand that the Dedication of Books unto such as would read and peruse them is no late or Novel usage for it was in those times or shortly after not thought to be unfitting or unnecessary to take the approbation and opinion of Grave and Learned men of such things as were to be made publicke as Plinius Junior in his Epistles informs us so that it may with reason and evidence be concluded that the Dedication of Books was not originally to procure the favor of some great or good Man neither were the Epistles Dedicatory heretofore acquainted with those gross Flatteries untruths or immense and accumulated praises of the Patrons or their Ancestors which some Foraign Printers for their own private gain do use in publishing Books out of some Copies and Manuscripts left by the deceased Authors or as too many German and other Authors have of late stuffed their Dedications withall which Heroick and great Souls do so little relish as the Books themselves would meet with a better entertainment if they came without them but one of the best and most approved usages of Dedications hath certainly and most commonly been derived from no other Source or Fountain then the great desire which the Author had there being before printing most probably but a few Copies sent abroad to receive the friendly censure and approbation of some Learned man who would in those days carefully read and peruse it and not as now too many men do oscitanter and cursorily take a view onely of the Frontispice or Title and lay it in the Parlor or Hall Windows to be idly turned over by such as tarry to speak with them or else crowd it in their better furnished then read or understood Libraries to make a Muster or great shew of such Forces as they have to bring into the Feild of Learning when there shall be any occasion to use them but neither then or before are able to finde or say what is in them But your Lordship being Master of the Learning in Books as well as of an excellent well furnished Library with many choice Manuscripts never yet published and very many Classick Authors and Volums printed and carefully pick't and gathered together out of the Gardens of good letters which an unlearned and reforming Rebellion and the Treachery of a wicked servant hired to discover them did very much diminish And your Eye and Judgement being able before hand to Calculate the Fate of the Author in the good or bad opinion of all that go by any Rules or measure of right Reason Learning or Judgement I have adventured to present unto your Lordship these my Labours in the Vindication of the Legality Antiquity right use and necessity of the Praeemption and Pourveyance of the Kings of England or Compositions for the Provisions of their Royall houshold for that your Lordship is so well able to judge of them and having been Comptroller of the houshold to his Majesties Royal Father the Martyr King CHARLES the First and to the very great dangers of your person and damage of your Estate like one of Davids good servants gone along with him in all his Wars and troubles when as he being first assaulted was inforced to take Arms against a Rebellious and Hypocritical part of his people in the defence of himself and his people their Religion Laws and Liberties and the Priviledges of Parliament and not only remained Faithfull to him during his life but after his death unto his banished and strangely misused Royal Issue when Loyalty and Truth were accompted crimes of the greatest magnitude and like some houses infected with the plague had more then one ✚ set upon them with a Lord have mercy upon us And did whilst that blessed King continued in his Throne and Regalities so instruct your self in those Excellent Orders and Government of his house as you have been able to enlighten and teach others amongst whom I must acknowledge my self to have been one and out of a Manuscript carefully collected by your Lordship concerning the Rules and Orders of the Royal houshold which your Lordship was pleased to communicate unto me to have been very much informed which together with the many favors with which you have been pleased to oblige me the incouragements which you have given me to undertake this work and the great respect and veneration which I bear unto your Lordships grand accomplishments in the Encyclopaidia large extent and traverses of all kinde of learning and your knowledge of Foraign Courts and Customes which being very extraordinary if you were of the ranke of private men must needs be very much more when it shall be added to the eminency of your Birth and qualitie and the Trust and Emploiments which his Majesty hath been pleased deservedly to confer upon you have emboldened me to lay these my endeavors before your Lordship submitting them to an utter oblivion and extinguishment and to be stifled in the Birth or Crâ—dle if they shall not appear unto your Lordship to be worthy the publike view and consideration Wherein although some may feast and highly content their Fancies with censuring me that I have been to prodigal of my labors in proving either at all or so largly the antiquity or legality of the Kings just Rights unto Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them when as the Act of Parliament in Anno 12 of his now Majesties raign for taking them away doth give him a Recompence for them yet I may I hope escape the censure or blame of setting up a Giant of Straw and fighting with it when I have done or of being allied to such as fight with their own shadows or trouble themselves when there is neither any cause or necessity for it when as the Act of Parliament for taking away Pourveyance
and profit of holy Church and the King and his People Which Rules and Rates being not held to be a publick grievance in all his Reign and the Reigns of King Edward the sixth and Queen Mary some of the Counties in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth though the people thereof were most commonly well paid for their provisions by the Queens Pourveyors finding some trouble and attendance in the procuring their monies to be paid for their commodities which were sometimes taken upon credit by reason of so many Offices Cheques Intrada's and Comptrolments which they were to pass through at the Court did about the fourth year of her happy Reign petition her to accept the value in money to be yearly paid by the Countries which she by no means hearkening unto it came afterwards to an agreement what proportion those and severall other Counties should yearly serve in Oxen Calves Muttons Poultry Corn c. In which she was so carefull to preserve her Subjects and People from grievances or just causes of complaints as in Anno 32 of her Reign Nicholls one of her Pourveyors was attainted of Felony and hanged for forcibly taking provisions without money and those compositions and agreements for provision of the Houshold continuing all her glorious and happy Reign and all the Reign of the peaceable King James it was in the eighth year of his Reign in the case betwixt Vaâ—x and Newman resolved by the Judges and allowed for law that it was lawfull for a Pourveyor paying for them to take Cattle for the Kings House by virtue of the Kings Commission and cited the book of 18 H. 6. 19 b. to that purpose And in the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr were none of the grievances then complained of in order to the obtaining of the Petition of Right and confirmation of the Peoples Rights and Liberties or of those which were then alleaged to be infringed Although that in the Reign of King James some of his Pourveyors having taken greater quantities of provision for his House and Stable then ever came or were needfull to his use and caused Timber to be cut down thereupon in Anno 2. of his Reign it was resolved by all the Judges of England and Barons of the Exchequer upon mature deliberation that the Kings Pourveyors could take no Timber growing upon the Inheritances of the Subject because it was parcell of their Inheritances no more then the Inheritance it self of which the King and his Council being informed he did by a Proclamation dated 23 Aprilis anno 4 of his Reign prohibit such their ill dealings and divers Pourveyors were afterwards punished by the Court of Starre-chamber for Pourveying of Timber growing without the consent of the owners Nor had that fatal and ever to be bewailed Remonmonstrance of the House of Commons in Parliament the 15. of December 1641. in which was too industriously amassed and put together all the errors imaginable in the Government and Reign of that pious Prince and more then could be proved any thing to charge upon the Pourveyance or Compositions for the provision of the Kings Houshold but only that the people were vexed and oppressed with Pourveyors and Clerks of the Market neither in their nineteen Propositions in June 1642. sent to the King at Oxford wherein they would have lessened his power all they could and extended their own was there any thing proposed for the taking away of the Royal Pourveyance or Compositions or in other propositions afterwards sent thither or in the Treaties at Uxbridge and the Isle of Wight Nor if causes and circumstances be as they ought to be well weighed in the Ballance of Judgement and all things rightly considered could be any grievance or cause of complaint When as the remote Counties which had less benefit by the constant residence of Q. Elizabeth King James King Charles the First in their Chamber of London the heart of the Kingdome did bear very little and the near adjacent Counties which by heightning their Markets and prices of all sorts of Commodities by a large improvement of their Lands and Rents to above twenty times more then â—t was in the Reign of King Henry the seventh and ten times more then it was in the eighteenth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth might better afford it did not pay or bear much in the Pourveyance or Composition which were made by the Justices of the Peace in each County upon consultation and agreement with the Officers of the Green-cloth in the Kings House for serving in a certain quantity of provisions out of every County at such rates and prices as were agreed on betwixt them as by a few instances of many may easily appear by what was yearly charged upon the Counties of Essex and Midlesex neer adjacent to London and the Counties of Derby Worcester and York which were more remote viz.  The Kings price Totall  l. s. d. l. s. d. Wheat 500 quarters at 0 6 8 166 13 4 Oxen fat 20 at 4 0 0 80 0 0 Muttons fat 300 at 0 6 8 100 0 0 Veals 300 at 0 6 8 100 0 0 Porks 100 at 0 6 8 33 6 8 Boars 6 at 0 13 4 4 0 0 Bacon Flitches 30 at 0 2 0 3 0 0 Lambs 1200 at 0 1 0 60 0 0 Geese 5 dozen at 0 4 0 1 0 0 Capons 10 dozen at 0 4 0 2 0 0 Hens 30 dozen at 0 2 0 3 0 0 Chickens 150 dozen at 0 2 0 15 0 0 Pullets 40 dozen at 0 1 6 3 0 0 Hay 134 loads at 0 8 0 53 12 0 Oats 1426 quarters at 0 4 0 285 4 0 Litter 120 loads at 0 4 0 24 0 0 Wood 769 loads at 0 3 0 115 7 0 Coals 250 chalder at 0 13 9 171 17 6 Summe    1201 0 6  Kings price Totall Wheat 200 quarters at 0 6 8 66 13 4 Veals 40 at 0 12 0 24 0 0 Veals 100 at 0 6 8 33 6 8 Green Geese 20 doz at 0 3 0 3 0 0 Capons course 10 doz at 0 4 0 2 0 0 Hens 20 dozen at 0 2 0 2 0 0 Pullets 20 dozen at 0 1 6 1 10 0 Chicken 40 dozen at 0 2 0 4 0 0 Hay 202 loads at 0 4 0 40 8 0 Oats 211 quar 2 bush at 0 4 0 42 5 0 Litter 180 loads at 0 4 0 36 0 0 Wood 200 loads at 0 3 0 30 0 0 Summe    285 3 0 The Market price Totall Difference l. s. d. l. s. d. l. s. d. 1 16 8 916 13 4 640 0 0 10 0 0 200 0 0 120 0 0 1 0 0 300 0 0 200 0 0 1 4 0 360 0 0 260 0 0 1 3 4 116 13 4 83 6 8 4 0 0 24 0 0 20 0 0 0 10 0 15 0 0 12 0 0 0 8 0 480 0 0 420 0 0 0 18 0 4 10 0 3 10 0 0 16
that purpose seene themselves attended in the plenty State and greatest of Royalty of the King or Prince from which they were sent and in the mean time nothing wanting or missing in that of the Kings attendance or magnificence in his Court oâ— Family From whence at all times Carelesnes Profusenes and all manner of wast were so banished as the Porters at the Gates were charged to watch and hinder the carrying out of meat and provision by such as should not the Pastrie rated in their allowances for Spice Sugar Corance c. the servants took an oath of duty and obedience and the Treasurer and Comptroller to make due allowance and payments with favourable demeanings and cherish love betwixt the King and his people In Anno 7 Jac. Rates and orders were made and set touching the Kings Breakfast and his particular fare as to qualities and proportions for Dynner and Supper and Fish dayes for the dyet of the great Officers and all other Officers and Servants having diet and the like on the Queens side Rates for Bouche of Court for Mornings and Evenings Lights and Candles and the Yeomen of the Guards diet and Beefe ordered to be on Flesh dayes for the King Queen and Houshold In anno 16 Jac. by advice of the Earl of Middlesex Sir Richard Weston Knight Sir John Wolstenholme Sir William Pyt Knight and other discreet men very much experienced in the Affairs of the world appointed to lessen as much as might be the charges of his house many good orders were made for the regulation of the Kings Houshold some abatements made in the allowance for his Breakfast by his own order a Limitation and stint of Joynts of Meat to make Jellies and all other compositions the number and names of all Noblemen and Ladies attending the Court to be quarterly presented And that the Prince should pay for his diet at his coming to Court which the most narrow-hearted and frugall of fathers in private Families and Societies have not done and his Countrymen of Scotland and many English could not say he was according to the rates he paid at his own House and that when he should repair to any of the Kings Houses in remote places he should pay for such of the Kings provisions as he should expend there according as they should be worth at the next Market And yet in all that frugality and care to prevent wast and the daily meeting of some of the Officers of the Green-cloth in the Compting house there were 240 gallons allowed at the Buttery Bar per diem three gallons per diem at the Court gate for thirteen poor men six Services or Mess of meat and seven pieces of Beefe per diem as wast and extraordinary for the Kings honour And there was no Sunday or other day of the week but the Tables of the great Officers and Lords entertained many Lords Knights and Gentlemen which were not of the Houshold but came to see the King or make and attend their petitions and suits and few Gentlemen of quality Citizens or other persons of those multitudes whose busines or desires to see the Court brought them thither but were taken in as Guests to dinner with some of those many other Officers of the Court that had diet allowed them it having been an antient custome after the King was set to dinner to search through all the Lodgings and Rooms of the House to find out Gentlemen and Strangers fit for and becoming the invitation of the Kings Servants to the Kings meats and provision for his servants and in all those treatments and largess of house-keeping there wanted not a sober plenty of wine and beer out of the Kings Sellers and an open house-keeping with so much sobriety as if it had not been an open housekeeping wherein no drunkenness or debauchery was to be seen as is too commonly in the now almost out of fashion open or free house-keeping at Christmas or other Festivals 18 Jac. Regis Divers Ordinances were made for the diminution of the charge of the Kings house-keeping the allowances of wast to be given dayly for the Kings honour reduced to a certainty viz. 200 loaves of bread 240 gallons of beer remains of Wax and Torch-lights to be returned the number of Artificers Victualleâ—s and Landresses ascertained number of Carts for Carriages stinted and proportioned to all degrees and Offices the charge of the Stable being almost doubled to what it was in Queen Elizabeths time to be lessened as much as may be none to be sworn Servants before the number of Officers should be reduced to what was formerly no Offices or Places in the Kings House to be sold all other good Orders to be put in Execution yet could at the same time by his especiall grace and favour remit to certain places some of his compositions Nor did those contrivances and endeavors to lessen the Kings charge of house-keeping die with King James but were found to survive to his Son and Successor his late Majesty King Charles the first in the third year of whose Reign half the allowance for houshold diets was abated on fasting nights and the carriages in every office reduced to a certain number and when the composition or Country provision of Oxen or Sheep did by the Courts frugality sometimes exceed or make an overplus they were sold and exactly brought unto an accompt for the defraying of other houshold charges where as his Royal Progenitors used to doe he could in his greatest wants and care of all fitting Espargne in his own diet and houshold cause the Lord High Stewards Table in time of Parliament to be constantly abundantly and extraordinarily kept and furnished to treat and dine the then numerous nobility and persons of honour coming to the Court and Parliament But all that was of Innocency antient legall and just Rights in it backt and seconded by right Reason the Lawes and reasonable Customes of the Land the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy taken by all Magistrates Justices of Peace Officers and many of the better sort of the people and of every Freeman of every Trade and Company in London and ordered to be taken by all men in the Kingdome to defend and maintain the Rights and Jurisdictions of the King and his Crown and the interests concernments good honor safety welfare and happiness of every man in particular being involved in that of their King or Prince were not enough to perswade those who had found the sweetness of ruining him and all which were loyal and well affected to him from pursuing the sinfull and abominable ends and designes of themselves and their great Master of Delusion the Devil to murder him but whilst they hunted him like a Partridge upon the mountains and through more persecutions of mind and body and a longer time then ever the righteous and holy David endured in his greatest afflictions could take all that he had from him his Lands Revenues and Estate and so much as
but free quarter as oft as any Plot should be feigned and contrived to Bugbeare them into more Taxes and Garisons and make them the more willing to pay new Assessments and content to imbrace their miseries But the Varnish and Fucus of those State-Mountebanks and Intruders being by time and many years lamentable experiments discovered found out and detected by all men which had not been gainers by it or bound their understandings and reason apprentices to the witchcraft or inchantments of the Devil and his Angels chattering and canting Scripture on purpose to wrong and ensnare them If any in our times of pretence of much reason and little or no practise of it shall be so over inquisitive or curious as to demand CHAP. III. The reason of Prae-emption and Regall Pourveyance or Composition for the Provision of the Kings Houshold WHich deserves a place inter Regalia insignia Majestatis amongst the speciall parts of Prerogative and denotations of Royal Majesty it will besides the universality of it and the allowance direction and examples of the Law of Nature and Nations before demonstrated be as obvious to all that will not willfully or purposely forsake the great road or high-way of Reason and Truth and creep into By-pathes of Error and Fancies as the causes and right reason of tributes self-preservation gratitude and retribution for publick benefits and the support of that happines peace and plenty which every man that would not be a Candidatus amongst such as are listed for Bedlam would not only willingly enjoy but leave as a Legacie to his posterity And the objections that every â—eller is to ask what price he pleaseth for that which is his own that no man by Law can lesseâ— or take that liberty from him which jure naturae by the Law of Nature is due unto him and that Jura naturae sunt immutabilia the Laws of Nature are not be abrogated that every Buyer is to have a free disposal of his own money is not to be restrained in the pleasing of his appetite or fâ—ncy or providing for his necessities or occasions in the giving what rate he will or laying out of his own money will be too weak to hinder or interrupt our passage to the conclusion or proving of it to be rational For that the Lawes of Nature which takes care of particular mens just rights and liberties do take a greater for the generall well-being of mankind and do many times enforce particulars in order to common good to yield and give place to Generals and God himself the natura naturanâ— great Master and Governor of Nature and the greatest and most prudent of all Legislators having all things past present and to come before him and uno intuitu looketh at once into them who may well be believed to be better skilled in the making of Lawes then any of the sons of men who at the best can only view the things that stand before them or which are weakly imprinted in their memory did in the righteous Lawes which he made for his beloved people of Israel and Children of the Promise limit the taking of Interest for the mony which was their own commanded them not to be usurers to the poor of that people and if they took a garment for a pledge to restore it unto the borrower before the going down of the sun ordered them to release their Creditors at the seven years end and permit the poor to enjoy their Lands their Vineyards and Olive-yards in that year of rest and not to sow or till their Land in the Jubile or fiftieth year but to return every man into his possession and in selling ought unto their neighbour or buying ought of his hand they should not oppress one another And the good Nehemiah the righteous governor of a Remnant of that people did not take it to be out of the power of the chief Magistrate to abate or mitigate unmercifull and hard hearted bargains and contracts in the lending of money one unto another but was angry and made them forbear their usury and restore to the Mortgagers their Lands their Vineyards their Olive-yards and their houses also the hundreth part of the money and of the corn the wine and the oile which they exacted of them and bound them unto it by an oath From the pattern or by imitation of which unquestionable Lawes came that rule or reason given by the Wisigothes in a Law of theirs prohibiting the stopping of the passage of ships or boats upon great rivers upon the pretence of a right of Fishing ut nullus contra multorum commune commodum suae tantummodo utilitati consulturus that no man taking care only of his own private profit more then that of the Common-wealth or many should do it our English Kings for publick utility and common good which according to that Axiome of the Civil Law that privatorum conventiones juri publicae derogare non debent private mens interests or bargains are not to inconvenience or disturb the Publick is to take place of every mans particular long before any Acts of Parliament were made to bring usury into some reasonable compass have punished excessive usury not suffered any man kernellare to embattel or build his house in the manner or form of a Castle though it were upon his own ground or at his own charge nor to make a Park in his own ground without the Kings License and from the rule of Interest Republicae ut re sua quisque bene utatur that it is for the good of the Commonwealth that every one should so use his own as not to doe any hurt to the publick punished one that set his corn on fire and in the Case of one Barrell in 5 Eliz. did by Decree of the Court of Star-chamber sequester part of his Estate to preserve it from his Extravagant expences and hinder him from undoing of his wife and children the abuse of propriety and the evils arising by a misusage of it being only thereby restrained as the prohibiting and punishing a Nusance by a Writ or Indictment or the bringing or suing out a Curia Claudenda for not making of Fences and the like remedies which our Laws of England have in many cases provided only to but and bound every mans propriety but not to take it away or do any harme or hurt unto it agreeable to the opinion of Grotius who tells us out of the almost Christian Tully that it is contra naturam ex hominis incommodo nostrum augere commodum natura non patitur ut aliorum spoliis nostras facultates copias opes augemus against the rules of nature to increase our Estates or gain by the spoils and damage of other men Et doli mali vox saith that learned Grotius omne significat quod naturali juri equitati repugnat and that every thing which is contrary to equity and the Laws of Nature are to be
in many as Canterbury York Durham Lincoln Coventry and Lichfield Exeter Ely Winchester and Norwich much abated when as now by the rise of mony and prises they are greatly different from what they then weâ—e and are of some of those Benefices and Spiritual Promotions but the eighth or tenth and of many but the twentieth part And receives his prae-Fines and post-Fines Licences and Pardons of Alienation upon Common Assurances at less then a tenth and many times less then a twentieth part of the true yearly values of the lands or rates which the Law ordering the compositions to be upon oath intendeth him after the example of his Royal Father who permitted the yearly value of lands in Capite and by Knight-service to be found by Juries and Inquisitions at the tenth part of the now true yearly value when as by oath they were to find and certifie the true yearly values and all the Lands of the Kingdome but his own are raised and improved generally ten to one or very much in very many parts and particulars thereof more then what they were two hundred years last past in or about the Reign of King Henry the sixth when as the errable and pasture lands which are now in Middlesex let at fifteen or sixteen shillings per annum an Acre and Meadow commonly at forty shillings and sometimes at three pounds the Acre were in Anno 1 Ed. 3. at a farre lesser yearly value when two Toftes of Land one Mill fifty acres of Land and two acres of Wood in Kentish Town near London was of no greater yearly value then 20 s. and 3 d. and the courser sort of pasture land in Essex now let for 8 or 9 s. the Acre and Meadow at twenty or thirty shillings the Acre was then in that Countie and in many fertill Counties within sixty miles and farre less of London valued but at eight pence per annum and four or five pence the Acre errable and the like valuations were holden in licences of Mortmain in all his extents or values of lands seised for taken into his hands Received their primer seisins at the like small yearly rate and took for suing out of Liveries which may be resembled to a Copiholders admittance not a fifth part proportionably to what is now paid by Copiholders to their Lords of Manors and respites of homage as they were taxed and set in anno primo Jacobi in a very easie manner Did not in the valuation of Lands and Estates as some Lords of Manors have been known to doe whereby to rack and oppress the Widdows and Fatherless employ some Sycophants or Flatterers of the Manor to over-value them or have some Decoyes in the assessing of Fines to seem willing to pay or give as much when they are sure to have a good part of it privately restored unto them again or cause their poor Tenants to be misled and the more willingly cozen themselves by crediting hard and erroneous Surveyes taking Leases of their Copihold Estates or using some other unwarrantable and oppressive devices worse then the Pharisaicall Committees did in the renting of lands they had no title unto when they did put men to box one another by overbidding themselves at their wickedly improving Boxes But did according to his Father King James his instructions given to his Councel of the Court of Wards in the assessing of Fines for the Marriages of the Wards and renting of their Lands which too many of the Nobility and Gentry and other of his Subjects did never or very seldome order the Stewards of their Manors to doe order that upon considerations which might happen therein either by reason of the broken estate of the deceased want of provision for his wife his great charge of children unprovided for infirmity or tenderness of the Heirs incertainty of the title or greatness of the incumbrances upon the Lands they should have liberty as those or the like considerations should offer themselves to use that good discretion and conscience which should befit in mitigating Fines or Rents to the relief of such necessities Suffers the Fees of his Chancery and Courts of Common-pleas and Kings-Bench for the small Seals to be receved as they were in the Reign of King Ed. 3. and the Tenths reserved upon the Abby and Religious lands at no greater an yearly value then they were in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the eighth when they were first granted though now they are of a four times or greater yearly value The Fees of the Seals of Original and Judiciall Writs and Process in Wales as they were in the 34. year of the Reign of King Henry the eighth when the English Courts of Justice were there first erected takes six pence a piece for Capons reserved for Rent in Queen Elizabeths time the issues of lands forfeited unto him upon Writs of distringas at such small rates as six shillings eight pence upon one distringas and 10 s. at another which the Law intendeth to be the profits of the Lands distrained betwixt the Teste and the return of the Writs which would have amounted unto twenty times or a great deal more and receiveth his Fines upon Formedons and othe real Actions granted and issuing out of the Chancery at most gentle and moderate rates his Customes inward and outward at easie rates proportionable to such small values as the Merchants advantage to themselves shall give in or the Officers or Commissioners for the King at the Custome-houses shall at randome and without view think to be a favourable and easie estimate Some single ones of which before recited undervaluations besides the profits of the Tolls of Fairs and Markets if rightly and justly paid according to the true improved values or two of the most of them would make up in a constant Revenue unto him a great deal more then the Compositions for his Pourveyances yearly and lately amounted unto by the difference betwixt his rates or prices and those of the Market A due consideration whereof if there were nothing else to put in the Ballance might induce the Earls Marquesses and Dukes of England who have received their honors and dignities from his Royal Progenitors to permit him as well to enjoy his Pourveyance and reasonable support maintenance of the honor of himself and his Royal Family as they doe take and receive of him their Creation monies being antiently a third part of the fines and profits of the Counties whereof the Earls are denominated since reduced to a certain and yearly sum of money when as also not a few of them have had great and large Revenues given them by his Royal Progenitors to uphold and sustein their Dignities and Honors And the Bishops whose Bishopricks and Baronies and most of the Revenues belonging unto them were of the foundation of the Kings Royal Ancestors and received their Investitures and Temporalties from him may if they shall think the Compsitions for Pourveyances ought not
understanding and right reason into the ruder sort of the heathen as in some parts of Africk the King thinks he is not beloved of his people unless he doth sometimes feast them and the heads of the Cowes which are killed for that provision are painted and hung up like pictures in his Chamber as for an honor to the King whereby such strangers which did come to his Court might perceive that he was a good King Being like the Agapes or Love Feasts allowed by St. Paul and those which the primitive Christians continued as an excellent Custome and usage when the rich as Tertullian witnesseth brought to those publick feastings meat and provisions and fed and feasted the poor which were so usefull and well-becoming all such as intended or desired the comfort and blessing of it as that thrifty as well as magnificent Commonwealth of Venice doe not only order and encourage yearly Feasts among the several ranks and Classes of their Citizens and people but doe make an allowance to their Duke or shadow of Monarchy for the feasting of the principal of the Senate and to send yearly in the winter to every Citizen a certain petty present of wild foul And if the virtue of charity which St. Paul makes to be the chief or summa totalis of all the virtues and excellencies which humane nature or frailties can be capable of and will not allow that of speaking with the tongues of Angels which certainly is more to be valued then our last twenty years English complement nor the gift of prophecy and understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge neither the having of such a faith as might remove mountains to be any more then nothing in him or a noise or emptiness if charity be not joyned with it be so superlative The people of England as well as their Kings and Princes were not mistaken when they did so heed and thought it necessary to be observed as a good part of the Tythes given by Aethelulph in the year after the birth of Christ 855. not only of his own Lands in demeasne but as most of the Writers which lived nearer that time have as the most learned and judicious Selden rightly observed it extended unto a grant made by the consent omnium Praelatorum ac Principum suorum qui sub ipso variis provinciis totius Angliae praeerant of all the Bishops and Prelates and the Princes and Earles which under him governed in the severall Provinces and whether the Tithes came first to be setled here by that great King Ethelulphus and his Bishops and great men or were assented unto or granted afterwards by the piety and devotion of particular men and the owners of lands and goods of which very many grants doe occurre before they were settled by a very just and binding authority of the Secular Ecclesiastical power and authority in this our Isle of great Britain some part of them may be certainly said to be in the use and application of them to the Church and Ministry and sacred uses dedicated and designed for hospitality Which the People of did so greatly regard and look after as the supposed want of it in the reverend Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury begot a project in the reign of King Henry the eighth as Doctor Peter Heylin that learned and great Champion of the Church of England and the truth even after he was blind hath recorded it Whereby a design was laid by a potent and over-busie Courtier to ruine the Revenues belonging to that Arch-Bishoprick by informing the King that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had fallen much Wood let long Leases for great Fines and made great havock of the Revenues of his Arch-Bishoprick whereby to raise a fortune to his wife and children and with so large a Revenue had kept no Hospitality that it was more meet for Bishops to have a sufficient yearly stipend out of the Exchequer then to be incumbred with Temporal Revenues and that the Lands being taken to his Majesties use would afford him besides the said Annual stipends a great yearly Revenue But the King rightly apprehending the device sent the Informer on an errand about Dinner time to Lambeth-house where he found all the Tables in the great Hall to be very bountifully provided the Arch-Bishop himself accompained at Dinner with diverse persons of quality his Table exceeding plentifully furnished and all things answerable to the port of so great a Prelate wherewith the King being made acquainted at his coming back gave him such a rebuke for his false information and the design which was built upon it as neither he nor any of the other Courtiers duâ—st stir any further in that suite And the common people of England have always with so much reason loved and applauded Hospitality good House-keeping Alms Deeds and works of Charity and in that besides their own benefits and concernments did but delight in the ways of God which he hath commanded and is well pleased with whereby the heretofore famous and greatly beloved Nobility and Gentry of England have gained so much love honor power reverence and well deserved esteem as the greatest part of the respects which are now afforded and paid by them unto their Issues and remaining generations are as unto too many of them more in remembrance of the good and vertuous deeds of their Ancestors then any personal good or vertue is either to be found in them or according to the courses which they now hold is so much as expected from them who think a name or title like some gaudy Sign-post hung out of an empty ill governed and worse furnished house where vice and all manner of sins in their horrid and ugly deformities being treated and entertained do crawle up and down like Toads Frogs and Serpents in some dark and loathsome Dungeon or that a pedigree deriving their discents from some or many Heroes and Worthy Patriots is honor enough for them do scorn all but their own foolries and suppose a witty Drollery and the Friskes and Funambuloes of an ill governed wit or of brains soaked and steeped in drink more to be valued then the wisdom in the Proverbs of Solomon hate vice and admonition shun vertue and morality as they would do the burst and fire of a Granado and believe dâ—inkâ—ng Dicing and Drabbing to be a more Gentile and cleanlier way of Hospitality and make the common people whilst they stand almost amazed at their Debaucheries and irregularities ready to swear they are illegitimate or some Changelings crept into the name and estate of their Hospitable and vertuous Progenitors and if any of them should be well affected and inclined to walk in the ways of their Ancestors and keep good houses can never be able to do it by reason of the no Reason of their Ranting and expensive Wives twenty of which sort of new fashioned women for there are some though not so many as should be which are or would be helpers to
Cooks stall unless they shall first lay down their little peice of Coyn for it shall like some Mounsieur Mal-regard be inforced to pay for a Cart or horses before hand as if there were no other way to deal with them And in stead of being as the children of the servants of Solomon when Nehemiah long after returned with the children of Israel from Captivity found in the Registers in order to a preferment there being then no selling of Places in fashion be afterwards no where to be found unless it be in the Role of the Beggars or that they who have spent their times and industry in the hopes and expectation of their Princes favour should when the Jews who as the learned Grotius hath recorded would not suffer any Qui ministerio fuerant Regio alterius se quam Regis successoris ministerio addicere who had once served the King to serve any but his successors which our Kings of England have frequently observed be constrained to betake themselves to the services of subjects or such as they can finde have a mind to entertain them And not onely his servants who are or should be well wishers to the return of Pourveyance or Compositions for them some of whom as the Treasurer and Comptroller are by the orders of the house to be sworn That all things in the Kings house be guided to the Kings most worship and that they search the good old rule worshipful and profitable of the Kings Court used before time and them to keep and better if they can But all the people of the Nation should remember that the honor and magnificence of David and that Royalty of Solomon which amazed the Eastern world in the distribution of their Officers and servants in their houses and order theâ—eof were justly numbered amongst the greatest Actions of their might and Majesty And that the wisdom of our King Henry the seventh was not a little conspicuous in the happy effects which it produced when after a retuâ—n from his troubles and afflictions in his great care and wisdom to prevent avoid the like and make such an establishment of the Crown for himself and his posterity which he had as happily as unexpectedly attained unto as might continue to as long a duration as the world was capable of he did so order his Court and houshold as it was a composure and assembly of men of the best birth education fortunes and estates qualities endowments and reputation in every County of the Kingdom were most popular best allied and beloved therein and had no small influences upon their Tenants Allies and dependencies some of whom he made to be the Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber Esquires of the body Pensioners Carvers Cupbearers Sewers Ushers and Waiters and made the Yeomen of his guard out of the best of the Yeomandry or such as were recommended by the Gentlemen of his Privy â—hamber or other of his servants of the higher ranks which together with other carefully pickt and well chosen servants not introduced by money or the avarice of such as were about him disguises partiâ—lities or false recommendations were as so many Intelligencers Eyes and Ears to the better ordering of his Government and affairs which were then in a nice and perplexed condition or as the Wheels in Ezekiels vision and the eyes in them to inform as well as Act served as a glass in the absence of Parliaments to represent unto him from time to time the symptomes and indications of the peoples contents or discontents and if any thing were to be rectified for the good of his subjects or done by him were by the great obligations which the people and such as were not his servants had and owed unto them which were his servants and were sure to have them reciprocally to be their Advocates and Intercessors to the King for favors to be granted or done unto them the most sure silent and never failing engines and contrivances to accomplish their soveraigns just and reasonable ends by which excellent and ever to be imitated order and very easie to be put in practice in the choice and election of such as were to serve and stand before him which is and ever hath been one of the greatest paâ—ts of prudence either in the manage of smaller affairs in every mans private Family or that of a Kâ—ngdom which is the Complexum or comprehension of all of them And such an happy as well as wise and successeful constitution which many of the Heathen Princes and those that live in the dark of understanding do not omit for their own security by making the children of their subjects to be their servants and bred up in their Courts as Hostages and Sureties for their parents good behaviours made and observed in his Court and within doors conjoyned with that without doors by agreement and good accord with the then potent Barons and great men of the Kingdom who by their hospitalities and letting of their lands at small Rents which were as Loadstones to attract the hearts and affections of the common people did not onely augment their own grandeur but like Solomons Lyons upholding his Throne imployed it in the support of the honor and magnificence of their King and Soveraign did to the univeâ—sal content both of Prince and people Domi forisque atchieve and bring to pass his many great and difficult affairs by imitation whereof and continuing that or the like course King Henry the eighth his son did deliver his people and Kingdom from the Impositions of Rome wherewith it had formerly been much troubled And Queen Elizabeth likewise waded through those many difficulties which had beleagured her Crown and Scepter and did those other great actions in defence of her self and her people which have laid her up in glory and made her remembrance to be as precious as the Spikenard or the sweet smelling Mirrhe and the most precious of Odors The consideration whereof and what will necessarily follow by any contrary course to be held and the lessening of Officers and servants by the want of Pourveyance or Compositions for them upon pretences of thrift and good husbandry or being supernumerary may inform us that it will not onely diminish and cloud the Majesty and splendor which is necessary to be in the Courts of Princes where the people should behold as well as rejoyce in the State and honor of their Kings which in England did outgo and surpass all that of our neighbour Princes but break the Links of that golden chain of order in the English Court when it will be apparent that such as otherwise may seem to be supernumeraries are not to be judged or looked upon as they would be in private families where their concernments are most commonly with a respect unto profit more then Worship or Honor that Princes are to have and keep a greater State then any of their subjects and that such a State which is some times made up
of Supernumeraries cannot be lessened where the high State and Honor of a King is to be maintained which some great or publike occasions as at Coronations Funerals Triumphs c. onely excepted is principally to reside in his house or fixed Station and therefore it cannot be for the good of the people or be correspondent to the Majesty of a great King that a lesser number of Maces should be born before him or that there should not be so many servants of one the same imployment but if the grandeur and magnificence of the King could be served with a lesser number of servants the pretended surplusage would be necessary enough in order to the preferring and pleasing of his people and to give them encouragement to love and honor him which is their head and to make it their business to preserve and keep up the honor and gâ—eatness of the King and his Court which David in the order and placing of Officers and servants in the house and Temple of the God of Israel as well as in his own did not think impertinent as the several distributions and pluralities of Officers to places of one and the same nature will sufficiently evidence and to do otherwise would as little conduce to that Decorum which ought to be in a Kings Family as some indigested advice would do in the propounding that there might be a sparing of a great yearly charge of the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners who were anciently those that served in War and ad latus principis in a pitched field or Battel and were by Covenant and Indenture which are frequently mentioned and to be found in the Records and ancient memorials of the Kingdom his Pensioners onely for that purpose because that the King is at a charge of a Life Guard which cannot comprehend and take in the uses for the Gentlemen Pensioners in their guarding the King within doors where there is a greater decency and honor in them and their service then can be in the Esau's or men of the Field and such as are onely useful in the direful Sacrifices to Bellona where the Majesty of a King is laid aside and by a present necessity exchanged for a sword and the bloody and unmajestick business of it and would be as little for the profit of a King within the Virge of that honor which shâ—uld encompass and attend him and his affairs as to suppose that the Master of the houshold which certainly hath been as ancient as the houshold it self and never but once for ought appears to the contrary intermitted and then by the cunning insinuation and self ends of one that was too instrumental in the introducing of our Trojan Horse is useless and supernumerary for that the Treasurer Comptroller Cofferer Clerks of the Greencloth and Clerks Comptrollers may amongst them and altogether discharge and supply the care and business of it which will appear to be no more then suppositions and pretences when as the Office of Master of the houshold which if well executed and as it ought to be is of most necessary use and of a greater Fatigue and trouble then any other of the houshold is not at all comprehended in the Lord Steward or great Master of the housholds place nor within the Offices of Treasurer Comptroller Cofferer Clerks of the Greencloth or Clerks Comptrollers but hath as all the rest of the Officers of the Greencloth have his peculiar and particular charge which is to inspect all the under Offices of the houshold and to be as a Corrigidor or Surveyor of those numerous Officers and servants which are therein unto which the other great imployments and high honor of the Lord Steward and the Treasurer and Comptroller who are of his Majesties Privy Councel will not permit them always to attend to call in question and prosecute the punishment of such under Officers and Servants and their irregularities as deserve it and keep a constant watch eye upon their actions and cause the daily orders and commands of the great Officers to be obeyed and executed by the inferior as well as the set and known Rules of the house which is now more then ever necessary and not to be wanted when there are so very great and many disorders which aâ—e heightned and more and more increased by the want of the Royal Pourveyances or Compositions for them and by the enhaunce of rates and prices of houshold provisions which do more infest the Purse and profit of the King then any supernumerary Officers and servants have as yet done and hinder him from regulating these unallowable improvements and as they are called Fees and perquisites of some Offices and Places in his Court by an Augmentation of the ancient Wages and Salaries of his servants now far too little and unable to support them in his service which the monys wasted in the damages and loss sustained for want of his Prae-emption and Pourveyances and by those otherwise remediless irregularities would have easily accomplished And all the people of England and their after generations may take it to be no less then their duty as well as their interest and if the irrational creatures were but to be Judges of it a common gratitude to endeavour all they can and to be willing that those ancient Rights should be continued and preserved to the King and his successors And having no small concernment in the honor of their Kings which by its Rays and Râ—flexions communicated unto them was and ever is and will be as necessary for the good and welfare of the King and his people as either Credit Cloths Jewels or any thing else they can have or adorn themselves withall when as their own interest or well or ill being is involved in the Kings May understand it to be no less their interest to uphold the honor of the King and his house then it was the interest of their forefathers who if they had not found it to be a more then ordinary concernment of themselves and every good subject to be assistant thereunto would not so often have been petitioners in several Parliaments and several Kings Raigns for the well ordering of the Kings house And being not ignorant how much all people are won and kept by hospitalities and benefits or lost for want of them should not be instrumental to mudd or stop the fountain but cherish rather keep the hospitality of the Kings house as carefully as the Romans did their Vestal fire and the Anciâ—ia or sacred Sheilds as some special part of the salus populi and believe that it was for the interest of the Nation that some Lords of the Kings Privy Council in the 21. year of the Raign of Henry the eighth even in the decay and expiring of Hospitality and almost all other the English vertues did amongst other Articles of Impeachment exhibited to the King against Cardinal Woolsey who kept a very large and ample Hospitality in his own house charge him that
0 8 0 0 6 0 0 0 12 0 18 0 0 15 0 0 0 6 0 45 0 0 30 0 0 0 10 0 20 0 0 17 0 0 1 10 0 201 15 0 140 19 0 0 12 0 855 12 0 570 8 0 0 10 0 60 0 0 36 0 0 0 7 0 26◠3 0 153 16 0 1 10 0 373 0 0 203 2 6    4266 6 8 2931 2 2 Market price Totall Difference 2 0 0 400 0 0 333 6 8 1 2 0 44 0 0 20 0 0 1 2 0 110 0 0 76 13 4 0 18 0 18 0 0 15 0 0 0 16 0 8 0 0 6 0 0 0 12 0 12 0 0 10 0 0 0 10 0 10 0 0 8 10 0 0 6 0 12 0 0 8 0 0 1 10 0 303 0 0 262 12 0 0 12 0 126 15 0 84 7 0 0 10 0 90 0 0 54 0 0 0 7 0 70 0 0 40 0 0    1203 12 0 917 19 0  Kings price Totall  l. s. d. l. s. d. Oxen lean 40 at 2 13 4 106 13 4 Muttons lean 200 at 0 4 8 46 13 4 Wax 200 weight at 0 0 8 per lb 7 9 1 Summe    160 15 9  Kings price Totall Oxen fat 20 at 4 0 0 80 0 0 Muttons fat 200 at 0 6 8 66 13 4 Stirks 20 at 0 10 0 10 0 0 Lambs 150 at 0 1 0 7 10 0 Summe    164 3 4  Kings price Totall Oxen lean 110 at 2 10 0 275 0 0 Price of the Market Difference l. s. d. l. s. d. l. s. d. 6 10 0 260 0 0 153 6 4 0 14 0 140 0 0 93 6 8 0 1 4 14 18 8 6 9 4    414 18 8 254 2 4 Market price Totall Difference 9 10 0 190 0 0 110 0 0 1 0 0 200 0 0 133 6 8 2 13 4 53 6 8 43 6 8 0 8 0 60 0 0 52 10 0    503 6 8 339 3 4 Market price Totall Difference 7 0 0 770 0 0 495 0 0 And may shew with what justice equality and due consideration those profitable Agreements and Compositions were made by the several Counties when as they did bear no other parts of the whole Compositions yearly served in kind for provisions for his Majesties late Royal Fathers House and they in the general were no more then as followeth Compositions which were served in kind for Provisions of his late Majesties House      l. s. d. Wheat 3790 quarters at 0 l. 6 s. 8 d. 1263 6 8 Oxen fat 578 at var. pretium 1980 6 8 Oxen lean 915.110 at 50's pr. rest at 53 s. 4. d. 821 13 4 Muttons fat 5150 ad var. prec 1575 0 0 Muttons lean 1850 ad var. prec 373 6 8 Veals 1231 ad var. prec 386 16 8 Porks 310 ad var. prec 88 13 4 Stirks 410 ad var. prec 183 0 0 Boars 26 ad 13 s. 4 d. prec 17 16 8 Bacon 320 flitches ad var. prec 17 10 0 Lambs 6820 ad 12 d. prec 341 0 0 Butter 40 Barrels ad 45 s. br 60 0 0 Geese 145 dozen ad var. prec 28 0 0 Capons cours 252 dozen ad 4 s. doz 50 8 0 Henns 470 dozen ad 2 s. doz 47 0 0 Pullets cours 750 dozen ad 18 d. doz 56 5 0 Chickens cours 1470 dozen ad var. prec 126 10 0 Wax 3100 weight ad 8 d. lb 115 17 8 Sweet Butter 46640 lb. ad var. prec 804 6 8 Charcoals 1250 loads ad 13 s. 9 d. load 859 7 6 Tallwood 3950 loads ad 3 s. load 442 10  Billets 3950 loads ad 3 s. load 442 10  Faggots 3950 loads ad 3 s. load 442 10  Herrings 60 br ad 13 s. 4 d. br 40 0 0 Wine Caske from the Vintners 600 Ton at 3 s. 4 d. per Ton 100 l. And will upon the severest examination or inquiries appear to be no more then necessary for the food and provision of the Kings Houshold those great Lords and Officers of State and persons of honor extracted from the best Houses and Families of England which stand before him and manage the many several offices and imployments in his House their Tables Dyet and Bouche of Court allowed them the many Knights Esquires Gentlemen Yeomen which attend him in their monthly or weekly turns and courses and do take their Diet and Lodging therein which being not a few and yet not much above the ninth part of the 10000 which daily follow the Court of France made up of an hideous dissolute and unruly number of Pages Lacquies and Footboyes could not possibly be provided for and honorably worshipfully maintained with lesser proportions in that princely honorable and plentiful manner in which the King and his royal Progenitors have alwaies kept their household and family and according to the honor and worth of those who are faithfully and decently to serve and attend him where frugality and prudence which as antiently as in the later end of the raign of King Edward the first when Fleta a treatise so called was written appeares not to have been a litle and a not sometimes but dayly care of expending no more then needs must by those excellent Rules and Orders from the highest Office in the Court unto the lowest thorough all the rankes and degrees of it without any lessening or diminution of the honor of it which are not to be equalled or patterned in the Oeconomy or government of any of the Nobility Gentry Merchants Cittizens or sorts of people whatsoever in the Kingdom Where Honor and Majesty sate in its greatest lustre where the expences were great and princely and yet such as compared with other mens families might seem impossible to bring the year about with so little where Prudence and Largesse Bounty and Providence were so combined and entered into a League and Association as if the Queen of Sheba before the Erinnis of our fiery and factious Spirits had lighted us with her hellish Torch to our shamefull Misdoeings and Miseries had viewed the honor of our King and the order of his house his many officers and their manner of sitting at their meate the attendance of his ministers and their English not Frenchified or Phantasticall apparrell she would not only have said as she did concerning Solomons Court and State Blessed and happy are they that serve and stand before him who hath power opportunity and meanes at all times to preferre and advance them and their merits but have wondered how it should have been done with so small an yearly expence so litle noyse or trouble and in so goodly an order Which the more then seldom extraordinary Embassadors of forraign Princes coming hither may subscribe unto when as for some dayes before their Audience they have with some of every sort of the Kings Servants and Officers selected to