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A91185 The fourth part of The soveraigne povver of parliaments and kingdomes. Wherein the Parliaments right and interest in ordering the militia, forts, ships, magazins, and great offices of the realme, is manifested by some fresh records in way of supplement: the two Houses imposition of moderate taxes and contributions on the people in cases of extremity, without the Kings assent, (when wilfully denyed) for the necessary defence and preservation of the kingdome; and their imprisoning, confining of malignant dangerous persons in times of publicke danger, for the common safety; are vindicated from all calumnies, and proved just. Together with an appendix; manifesting by sundry histories and foraine authorities, that in the ancient kingdome of Rome; the Roman, Greeke, German empires; ... the supreame soveraigne power resided not in the emperours, or kings themselves, but in the whole kingdome, senate, parliament, state, people ... / By William Prynne, utter-barrester, of Lincolnes Inne. It is this tenth day of July, ordered ... that this booke .... be printed by Michael Sparke senior. John White.; Soveraigne power of parliaments and kingdomes. Part 4 Prynne, William, 1600-1669.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Comomns. 1643 (1643) Wing P3962; Thomason E248_4; ESTC R203192 339,674 255

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Empire in the Greek and German Empires derived out of it in the old Graecian Indian Aegytian Realmes in the Kingdomes of France Spaine Italy Hungary Bohemia Denmarke Poland Sweden Scotland yea of Judah Israel and others mentioned in the Scripture the Supreame Soveraignty and Power resided not in the Emperours and Kings themselves but in their Kingdomes Senates Parliaments People who had not only a power to restrain but censure and remove their Emperours and Princes for their Tyranny and misgovernment With an Answer to the Principal Arguments to prove Kings above their whole Kingdomes and Parliaments and not questionable nor accountable to them nor censurable by them for any exorbitant Actions HAving finished the preceding Treatise which asserts The Supreame Authority and Soveraigne Power in the Realme of England legally and really to reside in the whole Kingdome and Parliament which represents it not in the Kings Person who is inferiour to the Parliament A Doctrine quite contrary to what Court Prelates and Chaplaines have for sundry yeeres inculcated into our Kings and People who preach little else but Tyranny to the one and Slavery to the other to support their owne Lordly Prelacy and hinder an exact Church Reformation and directly opposite to the resolutions of many malignant Courtiers Lawyers and Counsellours about His Majesty who have either out of ignorance or malice created him a new Utopian absolute Royall Prerogative unknowne to our Ancestors not bottomed on the Lawes of God or the Realm for maintenance of each Punctilio whereof against the Parliaments pretended Encroachments the whole Kingdome must be engaged in a destructive civill Warre now like to ruine it I could not but conjecture how in all probability these Clergy men Courtiers and Lawyers out of their unskilfulnesse in true Divinity History Law and Policy would upon the first tydings of this strange Doctrine passe a sentence of Excommunication and death against it as guilty not onely of Heresie but High Treason and judge it such a monstrous Antimonarchicall Paradox as was never heard of in much lesse claimed or practised by any Kingdome Realm or Monarchy whatsoever To anticipate which rash censures and undeceive both Kings and Subjects whom these grosse Parasites have over-long seduced in this point to their prejudices convince the consciences of all gainsaying Malignants irradiate this long obscured verity whose seasonable discovery may through Gods blessing conduce very much to period the present Differences between King and Parliament touching matters of Prerogatives and Priviledges claimed by either I conceived it not only expedient but necessary to back theforecited presidents of our own Kingdom with paralelled examples in most forraign Realmes and Monarchies in which it is not mannerly to be overbusie without just cause which I have faithfully though sudenly collected out of the best approved Authors and Historians whereby I shall infallibly prove that in the Roman State and Empire at the first in the Greek Empire since in the German Empire heretofore and now in the ancient Kingdomes of Greece Egypt India and elsewhere in the Kingdomes of France Spaine Hungary Bohemia Denmarke Sweden Poland Scotland and most other Kingdomes in the world yea in the Kingdomes of Judah and Israel and others mentioned in Scripture the Highest Soveraigne Authority both to elect continue limit correct depose their Emperours and Kings to bound their royall power and prerogatives to enact Lawes create new Offices and formes of Government resided alwayes in these or Princes persons I shall begin with whole Kingdomes Senates Dyets Parliaments People not in the Emperors Kings the Roman State as having much affinity with curs which was long under their command heretofore After the building of Rome by Romulus and Remus Romulus being elected King divided the people into two Rankes those of the highest quality he stiled Senators making them a Court of Counsell and Justice much like our House of Peeres the other he termed The People being the body of the State and representing our House of Commons In this distinction made by the Peoples consent the Soveraigne Authority to elect Succeeding Kings to enact binding Lawes to make warre or peace and the like rested not in the Kings person but in the Senate and people joyntly if they accorded yet principally in the people in case either of assent or dissent between them their very Kings and Lawes having their greatest power and efficacy chiefly from the peoples election and assent To begin first with their Kings Election and Authority when Romulus their first King deceased there arose a great controversie in Rome about the Election of a new King for though they all agreed to have a King yet who should chuse him and out of what Nation he should be elected was then controverted In the Interim to avoid confusion the Senators being 150. divided the Regall power between them so as every one in his turne in Royall Robes should doe Sacrifice to the Gods and execute Justice six houres in the night time and six houres in the day which tended to preserve an equality among the Senators and to diminish the envie of the people when in the space of one night and day they should see one and the same man both a King and a private person But the people disliking this Interregnum as tending to put off the Election of a King that the Senators might keep the principallity and divide it among themselves cried out that their bondage was multiplyed having an hundred Lords made instead of one neither would they suffer it any longer unlesse they would admit a King created by themselves Hereupon the Senate thinking it best to offer the people that which they were like to lose to gaine their favour Summa potestate populo permissa permitted to the people the chiefe power of Electing a King but yet that they might not give away more right then they deteined they decreed That when the people had commanded and elected a King it should be ratified if the Senators should approve it or be reputed the authors of it Then the Interex assembling the people spake thus unto them O Romans REGEM ELIGITE chuse yea King so the Senators thinke fit and if he be one worthy to succeed Romulus they will approve him This was so gratefull to the people that lest they should be overcome with the benefit they commanded that the Senate should decree who should reigne at Rome At last Numa Pompilius was named and none of the people or Senate daring to preferre any before him all of them joyntly decreed that the Kingdome should be conferred upon him Whence Canubius the Tribune of the people in his Speech against the Consuls long after used these words Numa Pompilius POPULI JUSSU Patres autoribus Romae Regnavit Reges exacti JUSSU POPULI which manifests the chiefe power to be in the people Numa departing Tullus Hostilius by the people command consent and approbation was made King which Livy thus expresseth Tullum
divided the Land of France betweene them so that either of them should under the King Rule and Governe such proportion as then there was to them appointed Charlemayne soone after renounced his Government and turned Monke and Pipin as onely Ruler tooke upon him the charge of the whole Realme Pipin then considering in his minde in what danger and trouble before him his Father and he now had ruled the Land and that the King to whom belonged all the charge kept his Palaces and followed all his delights and pleasures without taking any paine for reformation of the same sent an ambassage to Pope Zachary asking his advice in point of conscience Whether it were more necessary or wealfull for the Realme of France that he should be admitted for King that did nothing but apply his minde to all bodily pleasures without care and charge take● upon him for the guarding of the Land and the People of the same or he that tooke upon him all the charge and paine in defence of the Land and keeping of the people in the due subjection To this the Pope answered and wrote back to Pipin that he was best worthy and most profitable for the Realme to be admitted for King that ruled well the Commonalty by justice and prudence and the enemies thereof defended and subdued by his policie and manhood Aventine relates his answer more largely in these words I finde saith Zachary in the Story of Divine Scripture that the people fell away from their wretchlesse and lascivious king that despised the counsell of the wise men of the Realme and created a sufficient man one of themselves King God himselfe allowing their doings All Power and Rule belongs to God Princes are his Ministers in their Kingdomes And Rulers are therefore chosen for the people that they should follow the will of God the chiefe Ruler in all thing and not do what they list He is a true King that guideth the people committed to his charge according to the Prescript and Line of Gods Law all that he hath as power glory riches favour and dignitie HE RECEIVETH OF THE PEOPLE and the people MAY WHEN THE CAVSE REQVIRETH FORSAKE THEIR KING It is therefore LAVFVLL for the Franks and Germanes refusing this unkindly Monster Childericke to chuse some such as shall be able in warre and peace by his wisdome to protect and keep in safetie their Wives Children Parents Goods and Lives Which answer of the Pope recited and approved in our owne King Edward the Confessors Lawes and Childerickes deposition likewise Chap. 17. being declared to the Lords Barons and Commons of the Realme whom this Pope likewise wholly absolved from their allegiance to Childericke soone after they of one assent and minde proceeded and deposed and put downe their King and Governour Childericke being a Sott a foole a beast and one unfit to governe and closed him in a Monastery after he had reigned ten yeares in the Kings room by name onely which done they unanimously elected and crowned Pipin for their King By meanes whereof the Royall Line of Moroveus after 17 discents ended and the Crown was translated to Pipins blood Which act in point of policie is determined lawfull by Polybius who Writes That the reason why some Kingdomes became hereditary was onely this because their first Kings being vertuous and worthy men they were perswaded their Children would prove like them but if at any time they degenerat and prove otherwise and the posteritie of the first Kings displease the subjects they thenceforth make the Kingdome elective chusing Kings not according to their strength of body and mindes attempting great things but according to the difference of their will and reason manifested by their actions And by Aristotle who informes us That in Kingdomes confirmed in succession of blood this is to be numbred among the causes of their ruine that the Kingdomes descend to many contemptible and slothfull persons who although they obtaine no tyrannicall but Royall dignitie yet they live lustfully and proudly and so the Kingdome easily falls to ground and becomes a tyrannie the people being unwilling that such should rule over them and so either wholly alter the forme of government or make choice of a fitter King for the necessary preservation of the State yea this election in point of Police and Divinity too is justified and proved lawfull by Buchanan in his Book de Iure Regni apud Scotos by Iohn Mariana de Rege Regis Instit l. 1. c. 3 5. by Pope Zachary in his forceited Epistle by King Edward the Confessor in his Laws c. 17. by a generall Councell of all the Peers and Prelates of France Convocato enim Principum et Senatorum Concilio de COMMVNI SENSV ET VOLVNTATE OMNIVN Childericum solo nomine Regem à regni fastigio deponunt c. ac OMNIBVS GAVDENTIBVS ET VOLENTIBVS Pipinum super Francos REGNARE FACIVNT writes Antoninus and in a word our Bishop Bilson himselfe an Anti-Puritane and great Royalist affirmes That if the King be a naturall foole distracted and altogether unable to governe as Childericke was any Realme by publicke consent and advice may choose another to govern them of which more before Pipin deceasing Charlemain and Charles the great his sons reigned joyntly over the Frenchmen by their ●oyous admittance Having now two Kings instead of one Lewes sirnamed the godly sonne of Charles the great a pious yet unfortunate Prince by meanes of his sonne Lothair was first imprisoned and then by a Councell and Parliament held at Compaygne by authority of the spirituall and temporall Lords and of that Parliament discharged of all rule and dominion as well of the Empire as of the Realme of France after that shorne a Monke and thrust into the Monastery of Saint Marke where he was strictly guarded and when some of the Nobles and people afterwards desired Lothair to release and restore him to his former dignity he answered them That the deposing of him was done by the whole Authority of the Land wherefore if he should be againe restored it must be by the same Authority and not by him onely After which by the Lords assents hee was restored Lewes and Charles after Lewes Balbus their fathers death were joynt Kings of France and being very young by a Parliament held at Meaux Lewes the Emperour their Vncle was declared to be more apt to rule the Kingdome of France then these Infants or Barnard their Guardian and these Children held by some illegitimate Whereupon by the greater number of voyces an Ambassadour was sent to the Emperour to come and take upon him the Rule of middle France which he comming to doe his Nephewes friends compounded with him and then caused these Infants to be crowned and proclaimed Kings Charles the simple at his Fathers death Anno 895. being too yong to take upon him the charge of the Realme the Lords of France
affirm that in this alone the summe of preserving civill concord both to Kings and the Kingdome hath consisted This Magistrate was at first called THE IUSTICE MAIOR afterwards assuming the name of the Kingdome it selfe it was called THE IUSTICE OF ARAGON By these formentioned prescribed Lawes the will of him who desired to be King of Aragon was wholy to bee directed and formed and unlesse he would first suffer his faith to bee obliged in most strick bonds for keeping of them any future soliciting was to be preposterous Having therefore laid the foundations of their Countreys liberty all of them began to dispute among themselves about electing a King to which end they all assembled together at Arahvest to chuse a King where they were suddenly besieged by the Arabians which Junicus Arista King of the Pompelonians hearing of came with an Army and rescued them whereupon they elected him for their King with unanimous consent and calling him unto them shewed him the Lawes they had pre-established one whereof concerning the middle Magistrate seemed most hard unto him But having more deligently considered the matter and that they voluntarily offered him the Kingdome gained from the enemies Hee not only ratified the Lawes themselves but likewise added this new Law or priviledge to them That if the Kingdome should happen hereafter to bee oppressed by him against the LAWES Iustice or Liberties the Kingdome it selfe should have free liberty to elect another King whether a Christian or an Infidell which clause of an Infidell King they refused to have bestowed on them because they judged it shamefull and dishonourable After which Iunicus taking an oath to observe the former Lawes was advanced to the Throne and made King of Aragon about the year 868. Moreover to establish all these Lawes and Constitutions our Ancestors themselves adjoyned the accession of a publike Vnion ordaining that it should be lawfull and just for them to meet all together ET RE 〈◊〉 OBSISTERE ARMIS ET VI and to resist the King with armes and force as oft as there should be need to propulse any assault of him or his made against the Lawes which form of assembling together for the common cause of liberty they called a Vnion or Association Neither did they anciently lesse think all their Liberties to be preserved by this Vnion then humane bodies themselves are by nervs and bones And although it were not prescribed in that Suprarbian Forum yet they thought it deduced from the very beginnings of things and deeply fixed and impressed in the sense of all men and to be established by our common Law as by another Law of Nature and that its force was enough and more then sufficiently known and discerned by use and reason For they said it would be but a thing of little profit for them to have good Lawes enacted and the very Iudiciary Presidentship of a middle Iudge if when there should be need AD EARVM DEFENSIONEM ARMA CAPERE NON LICERET cum jam tunc satis non esset pugnare consilliis it should not be lawfull for them to take up Armes in their defence when as then it would not be sufficient in such a case to fight with Counsells Neither verily did that seem altogether impertinent from the matter for if it should be so all things long ere this had been in the power of Kings themselves Whence our people reputed these two priviledges of the Union obtained from Alphonso the 3. to wit That it shal be lawfull for the Estates of the Realm if the King shall violate the Lawes of the Countrey To create a new King in his place and without the crime of Treason to make confederacies among themselves and with Neighbour Princes To defend their Liberty which King Ferdinand upon the petition of the Castilians refused to revoke because he had taken a solemn Oath to observe them not as new favours or benefits but as things done out of Office c. Therefore in those ancient Rulers of which we treat the Liberty of our Country was hedged about by our Ancestors with three most strong fences namely with the Prefecture of this middle Iudge with the most ample power of the Rici-men or Palatines and with this most fierce force of the Vnion of which the first seemed to be Legal and civill the other domesticall and of greatest moment the last warlike and popular Neither ought it then to be inclosed with a lesser hedge that so we might rejoyce that it hath therby come safe sound to us now But of these garrisons or fences the ancient inventers of them and those who next succeeded them conferred more assistance and labour upon the two last namely the domestick and popular then on that Court presidentship For they would alwayes retain in themselves a power of moderating and governing the most loose reines of the Royall Dignity which they might restrain or enlarges as there was need The fore they assigned those 12 elders to him elected out of the greatest men by whose Counsels the Kings ought to be hedged in on every side the place of which Elders the Rici-men afterwards possessed who were the chiefe of our Nobles who in times past were second to the Kings in such sort that they might seem to be their Peers and Companions These called that publike union to the ayde of Liberty and out of them were chosen those who should alwayes be the prime and principall conservators of it for thus they called the presidents of the Vnion Finally they sustained on their necks all the Offices and burdens of peace and warre if not with the same power as the Kings yet I may truly say with very little lesse for the Rici-men as long as they flourished relying on the Forces of the Vnion did alwayes hover over the Royall Empire and by the intire power of their offices if the violence or assaults of Kings were unjust did from inordinate reduce them into order and as it were into a circle of Law and Iustice In which thing verily their grave censorious and domesticall authority had sufficient tight and moment with our ancient Kings who were well mannered but if peradventure they could not with their fitting counsels bridle the exulting royall Forces they did constantly repell them from their necks with the force of the raised Vnion Thus and much more this Spanish Author in whom you may read at large the Power and Authority of the Iustice of Arragon of the Generall Assembly of the Estates or Parliaments of that Kingdom of their Rici men Peeres Magistrates Councellors and in Ioannis de Laet. his Descriptio Hispaniae cap. 5. cite Ioannis Mari. and De Rebus Hisp l. 8. c. 1. Gen. hist of Spain l. 17. p. 618. To which I shall onely adde this most notable custome and ceremony used at the Coronation of the Kings of Arragon recorded r by Iunius Brutus r Franciscus Hotomanus and others The Arrogonians when as they create and
own wisdome And to doe nothing without the advice of the High-Priest and Senate and that if he multiplyed horses and mony more then was fitting They might res●st him lest he became more potent then was expedient for their affaires Hence Petrus Cunaeus de Repub. Hebr. l. 1. c. 12. p. 101. 102. writes thus of the Sanhedrin or Parliament among the Iewes Thus the Prophets who grievously offended were no where else punishable but in this Assembly which Quod summae potestatis est as it is an Argument of The Supremest power did both constitute the King ac de Bello gerendo deque hostibus profligandis de proferendo Imperio del●beraba●t Sed quoniam haec ejusmodi erant in quibus salus omnium summae Reipublicae vertebatur Consultatum de his plerumque cum populo est indictae enim Comitiae sunt in quibus solis populus partem aliquam caperet regendae reipublicae c. De Rege igi●ur deque Bello ut dixi decreta facta interdum Populi auctore sunt Caetera omnia Senatores Sanhedrin Per se expedivere So that the Sanhedrin and Congregation of the people were the highest Soveraigne power and principall determiners of publike matters concerning warre and peace by Cunaeus his resolution Who debating this weighty controversie What the Scepter of Iudah was prophesied of Gen. 49. 10. and what and whose the Majesty of the Empire was determines thus I suppose the Scepter to be nothing else but the Majesty of the Empire or Government to wit that Quae ipsi Reipublicae assidet which belongs to the Republike it selfe Wherefore whos 's the Republike is the Scepter ought to be said theirs Now the Hebrew Republike from Moses his time till the Kingdome of Rehoboam was not of the Iewes or tribe of Iudah but of the twelve Tribes from whence it followes that even the Scepter for all those times was of all the Israelites Now of this Scepter which was long common to all the twelve Tribes the divine Patriarke spake not in that most famous Oracle for he looked at latter yeares and future ages when as the Tribe of Iudah the people being divided into contrary parts began to have its Republike apart from the Israelites which God approved and loved and would have to be called Iewish from the Tribe of Iudah alone untill hee to wit Christ should be given to the assemblies of men to whom not onely the Empire of the Iewes but Gentiles also was destinated And verily this Majesty of the Scepter from the time it once began to be of the Iewes we say continued to be theirs although the state of the Commonweale was sometimes changed and the soveraignty of the Empire was sometimes in the Elders and High Priests sometimes in the Kings and Princes They doe too foolishly who here dance in a narrow compasse and suppose that the honour of this name appertaines not but to Kings For what people soever useth its owne Republike and its Lawes Is recte Gloriari de Imperio deque sceptro potest it may rightly boast of Its Empire and Scepter It is recorded that at Ierusalem even at that time when not the Princes but the Elders governed the people in the midst of the great Councell which they called the Sanhedrin there hung a Scepter which thing verily was a certain Ensign of its Majesty which Marcus Tullius in a particular Oration saith Esse magnitudinem quandam Populi in ejus potestate ac jure retinendo quae vertitur in imperio atque omnis populi dignitate Not Kings not Princes but Consuls and the Senate managed the Roman Common-wealth whence this Law of Truce was given to the Aetolians which Livy reports That they should conserve The Majesty of the People of Rome without mal-engin And the very same thing was commanded all free People who by any league but not equall would come into the friendship of the Romanes as Proculus the Lawyer witnesseth in l. 7. F. de Captiu Post reversis Neither think we it materiall to our purpose of what Nation or Tribe they were who moderated and ruled the Iewish affaires for although the Hasmonaean L●vites held their Kingdome for many yeeres yet the Republike was of the Iewish people That most wise Master Seneca said to Nero Caesar That the Republike was not the Princes or of the Prince But the Prince the Republikes Neither verily was the opinion of Vlpian the Lawyer otherwise for he at last ●aith that That is Treason which is committed against the Roman People or against their safety l. 1. s 1. F. ad Legem Iul. Majest Now Vlpian lived in those times when the people had neither command nor suffrages left them but the Emperours held the Empire and Principality and yet he who is wont most accurately to define all things saith That Majesty is of the People From all which it is apparant that not onely in the Roman Empire and other Kingdomes but even among the Iewes themselves the Majesty and Soveraign Power and Scepter resided not in the Kings but in the whole State and People Hence Will. Schickardus in his Ius Regium Hebraeorum Argent 1625. p. 7. determinesthus The state of the Iewish Kingdome was not Monarchicall as our Court Doctors falsely dream but mixt with an Aristocrcie for the King without the assent of the Sanhedrin Could determine nothing in great causes They constituted not a King but in it c. attributing the Soveraignest power to the Congregation and Sanhedrin who had power to create elect and in some cases to resist and depose their Kings Hence Huldericus Zuinglius writes expresly That the Kings of the Iewes and others when they dealt perfidiously contrary to the Law of God and the rule of Christ might be lawfully deposed by the People This the example of Saul manifestly teacheth whom God rejected notwithstanding he had first elected him King Yea whiles wicked Princes and Kings were not removed all the people were punished of God as is evident by Ier. 15. 1. to 6. where they were punished with four judgements and plagues for Manassehs sinnes In summe if the Iewes had not permitted their King to be so wicked without punishment they ●ad not beene so grievously punished by God By what means he is to be removed from his Office is easily to conjecture thou maist not slay him nor raise any war or tumult to do it but the thing is to be attempted by other means because God hath called us in peace 1 Cor. 7. If the King be created by common suffrages he may again be deprived by common Votes unlesse they will be punished with him but if he be chosen by the election and consent of a few Princes the people may signifie to them the flagitious life of the King and may tell them that it is by no means to be endured that so they may remove him who have inaugurated him Here now is the difficulty for those that do this the Tyrant
made this wholesome sanction admonishing all the Iudges of his whole Republike that they should suffer no Rescript no pragmaticall sanction no sacred adnotation which should seem repugnant to the generall all Law or the publike profit to be produced in the pleading of any suite or controversie enough eternally to shame and silence those flattering Courtiers Lawyers Divines who dare impudently yea impiously suggest the contrary into Princes Ears to excite them to Tyrannize and oppresse their subjects against their expresse Oathes inviolably to observe and keep the Laws their Duties the very Lawes of God and man of which more in the seventh and eigth Observation Fourthly That Kings and Emperours can neither anull nor change the Laws of their Realms nor yet impose any new Laws Taxes or Impositions on them without the consent of their People and Parliaments This I have largely manifested in the first Part of this Discourse and the premised Histories with the Authors here quoted in the three precedent Observations attest and prove it fully for if the whole Kingdom Parliament and Laws themselves be above the King or Emperour and they receive their Soveraign Authority from the People as their publike servants It thence infallibly follows that they cannot alter the old Laws which are above them nor impose new Lawes or Taxes to binde the whole Kingdom people without their assents they being the Soveraigne Power This point being so clear in it self so plentifully proved in the premises I shall onely adde this passage out of Iunius Brutus to ratifie it If Kings cannot by Law change or extenuate Laws once approved without the consent of the Republike much lesse can they make and create new Laws therefore in the German Empire if the Emperour think any Law necessary he first desires it in the generall assemblies if it be approved the Princes Barons and Deputies of Cities subsigne it and then it is wont to be a firme Law Yea he swears that he will keep the Laws Enacted and that he will make no news Laws but by common consent In the Kingdom of Poland there is a Law renewed An. 1454 and 1538. That no new Laws or Constitutions shall be made but onely by publike consent or in any place but in Parliament In the Realm of France where yet commonly the authority of Kings is thought most ample Laws were heretofore enacted in the Assembly of the three Estates or in the Kings ambulatory Councell but since there hath been a standing Parliament all the Kings Edicts are void unlesse the Senate approve them when as yet the Arrests of that Senate or Parliament if the law be wanting even obtain the force of a Law So in the Kingdoms of England Spain Hungarie and the rest there is and of old hath been the same Law For if Kingdoms depend upon the conservation of their Laws and the Laws themselves should depend upon the lust of one Homuncio would it not be certain that the Estate of no Kingdom should ever be stable Would not the Kingdom necessarily stumble and fall to ruine presently or in a short space But if as we have shewed the Lawes be better and greater than Kings if Kings be bound to obey the Laws as servants are to obey their Lords who would not obey the Law rather then the King who would obey the King violating the Law who will or can refuse to give ayd to the Law thus infringed Fiftly that all publike great Officers Judges Magistrates and Ministers of all Realms are more the Officers and Ministers of the Kingdom than the Kings and anciently were and now ought to be of right elected onely by the Kingdom Parliament people and not removable but by them which is largely proved by Iunius Brutus Vindiciae contr Tyrannos qu. 1 2 ● De Jure Magistratus in Subditos qu. 5 6 7 8 9. with others the Histories forecited and Hotomani Francogallia c. 6 11 12 13 14. 6. That Kings and Emperors have no absolute power over the lives liberties goods estates of their subjects to dispose of them murther imprison or strip them of their possessions at their pleasure but ought to proceed against them in case of Delinquency according to the known Lawes and Statutes of their Realmes This truth is abundantly evidenced by all the premises by Magna Charta c. 29. and all Statutes Law-Books in affirmance of it by resolution of the Judges in Henry 8. his reigne Brook Corone 29. That it is Felony to slay a man in justing and the like notwithstanding it be done By command of the King for the command is against the Law and of Judge Fortescue 19. H. 6. 63. That if the King grant to me that if I kill such a man I shall not be impeached for it this grant is void and against Law By Junius Brutus Vindiciae contra Tyrannos Quast 3. p. 136 to 137. and the Treatise De Jure Magistratus in subditos in sundry places where this undeniable verity is largely proved confirmed and by others forecited Seventhly That Emperours Kings Princes are not the true Proprietory Lords or Owners of the Lands Revenues Forts Castles Shipps Iewels Ammunition Treasure of their Empires Kingdoms to alienate or dispose of them at their pleasures But onely the Guardians Trustees Stewards or Supervisors of them for their Kingdoms use and benefit from whom they cannot alien them nor may without their consents or privities lawfully dispose of them or any of them to the publike prjudice which if they doe their grants are void and revocable This proposition formerly ratified by many reasons authorities sundry Historicall Passages in this Appendix is not only evident by the Metropolitans usuall speech to all elected Kings prescribed by the Roman Pontificall ratified by the Bull of Pope Clement the eight where the Metropolitan when any King is presented to him to be Crowned first demands of the Bishops who present him Do you know him to be worthy of and profitable to this dignitie to which they answer We know and beleeve him to be worthy and profitable to the Church of God and for the Government of this Realme After which the Metropolitan among other things useth this Speech unto him Thou shalt undeniably administer Iustice without which no society can continue towards all men by rendring rewards to the good punishment to the evill c. and shalt so carry thy self that thou maist be seen to reign not to thine own but to all she peoples profit and to expect a reward of thy good deeds not in earth but in heaven which he immediately professeth with a solemn Oath to perform to the uttermost of his power and knowledge but likewise professedly maintained by Iustus Eccardus de Lege Regia Marius Salamonius de Principatu Hugo Grotius de Iure Belli Pacis l. 1. c. 4 sect 10. Lib 2. c. 13. 14. Hotomani Franco-Gallia c. 6. 10. 14. Ruibingius l. 2. Class 11. c. 8. n.
Coyning and High Treason Anno 1328. Alphonso King of Castile treacherously murthering Don Iohn the blinde his Kinsman in his own Court when he had invited him to dinner on all Saints day and then condemning him for a Traitor confiscating his lands a fact unseemly for a King who should be the mirrour of Iustice Hereupon Don Iohn Manuell stood upon his Guard fortified his Castles revolted from the King for this his Treachery allyed himself with the Kings of Arragon and Granado overran the Countries of Castile from Almanca unto Pegnafield the Prior of Saint Iohns Don Fernand Rodrigues hereupon caused the Cities of Toro Zamora and Vailledolit to rebell and shut their gates against the King and many others likewise revolted from him At last he was forced to call an Assembly of the Estates who gave him Subsidies to ayde him in his wars against the Moors and to conclude a peace with Don Manuel and his other discontented Subjects whom he afterwards spoiling of their lawfull inheritances and pursuing them in their honours and lives by Tyrannous crueltie extending his outragious disdain even to women of his own blood he thereby so estranged most of his Princes and Nobles from him that they revolted from him and joyned with Mahumet king of Granado and the Moors in a warre against him which lasted three or four yeers putting him to infinite trouble vexations and expences enforcing him to make a dishonourable peace with the Moors to release the Tribute which they payed him formerly and after much mediation he concluded a Peace thorowout all the Realm with his discontented Subjects This Prince thinking to raign more securely had taken a course of extream severity shewing himself cruell and treacherous to his Nobility whereby he was feared but withall he lost the love and respect of his subjects so as he was no sooner freed from one danger but he fell into another worse then the first his Nobles holding this for a Maxime That a Tyrant being offended will at some time revenge himself and therefore they must not trust him upon any reconciliation who to pacifie the troubles which had grown by his own errour had made no difficulty to sacrifice upon the peoples spleen his own Mignions degrading and in the end murthering condemning them as Traitors after their death yea the Princes of his own blood taking their goods estates and depriving the lawfull Heirs seeking to reign over free men and generous Spirits as over beasts entreating them as base and effeminate slaves who might not speak their opinions freely in matters of State and Government of which they were held dead members and without feeling Whereupon D. Manuel and other Nobles as men endued with understanding reason and not forgetting the nature of Alphonso who was proud a contemner of all laws and treacherous they proceeded so farre as to withdraw themselves from his subjection by protestation and publike act and entred into a league with the King of Portugall incensing him to take up Arms for their defence Where upon King Alphonso having some feeling that cruelty was too violent remedy for men that were Nobly borne he sought by all milde and courteous meanes to divide them and to draw some of them to his service which he effected and so more easily conquered and reduced their companions An. 1337. was founded the Town of Alegria of Dulanci in the Province of Alava and many Villages thereabout the which obtained from the King the priviledges and Lawes of the Realm whereby the inhabitants should govern themselves with libertie to chuse their own Iudges Don Pedro the first king of Castile surnamed the cruell most tyrannically murthering and poysoning divers of his Nobles and subjects without cause banishing others quitting Blanch his espoused wife within three dayes after his marriage to enjoy the unchaste love of Donna Maria de Paedilla by whom hee was inchanted which much troubled the whole Court divorcing himselfe without colour by the advice onely of two Bishops without the Popes assent from Blanch and marrying Jane of Castro in her life time Hanging up divers Burgesses of Toledo causlesly for taking the Queens part too openly and among others a Goldsmiths sonne who offred to be hanged to save his fathers life causing his own brother Don Frederick and divers Nobles else to be suddenly slain Anno 1358. poysoning and murdering likewise divers Noble Ladies among others Don Leonora his own Aunt after which Anno 1360 he murthering two more of his own brethren executing divers Clergy men and Knights of Castle banishing the Archbishop of Toledo putting divers Jews as Samuel Levy his High Treasurer with his whole family to death to gain their Estates and causing his own Queen Blanch to be poysoned after she had long been kept prisoner by him Anno 1361. Hereupon his cruelties rapines and murders growing excessive and the Popes Legat denouncing him an utter Enemy to God and man Henry Earle of Transtamara his brother with other Fugitives getting ayde from the King of Navarre entred Castile with an Army where by the Nobles importunity he tooke upon him the title of King of Castile and Leon which done the whole Kingdom long oppressed with D. Pedro his Tyranny immediately revolted from him so that in few dayes Henry found himselfe King of a mighty great kingdom almost without striking stroke the people striving who should first receive him such was their hatred to the Tyrant Pedro who being doubtfull what to doe fled with two and twenty Ships out of his Realme to Bayon craving ayde of the English to revest him in his Kingdom mean time king Henry assembling the Estates at Burgon they granted him the tenth penny of all the Merchandize they should sell in the Realm to maintaine the warres against Pedro who getting ayde from the English upon conditions accompanied with the valiant Black Prince of Wales entred with a great Army into Spain where the Prince writing to Henry voluntarily to resign the Crown to Pedro his Brother to avoyd the effusion of Christian blood he made answer That he could not hearken to any accord with him who had against the law of nature taken delight to murther so many of the blood Royall and other great personages of Castile who had no respect of the Lawes of the Countrey and much lesse of God falsifying his Oathes and promises having no other rule in his actions but his Tyrannous passions Whereupon battell being joyned Henry was conquered and Pedro restored But hee discontenting the English and others who had reseated him in his Kingdome by his insolency and Tyranny and the Biscaniers refusing to be under the command of strangers whom they would never consent to be put in possession of their Countrey and withall falling to his former cruelties and courses contrary to the advice of his friends and Astrologers he so estranged the hearts of all from him that the English returning and Henry receiving new forces from the French entred Castile
should maintaine them in their freedomes and liberties which he hath promised and sworne solemnly unto them before his reception to the principalitie Thereupon quarrels grow the Prince will hold a hard hand and will seek by force to bee obeyed and the subjects rising against the Prince oftentimes with dangerous tumults rejecting his authority seek to embrace their full liberty In these first motions there happen sometimes conferences at the instance of neighbours who may have interest therin to quench this fire of division betwixt the Prince and his subjects And then if any one of the parties groweth obstinate and will not yeeld although he seeme to be most in fault it followeth of necessity that they must come to more violent remedies that is to say to armes The power of the Prince is great when thee is supported by other Princes which joyn with him for the consequence of the example else it is but small but that of the people which is the body whereof the Prince is the head stirred up by conscience especially if the question of Religion be touched the members ordained for their function doing joyntly their duties is farre greater Thereupon they wound they kill they burne they ruine and grow desperately mad but what is the event God who is an enemy to all tyranny and disobedience judgeth quarrels weigheth them in his ballance of justice helping the rightfull cause and either causeth the Prince for his rigour and tyranny to be chased away and deprived of his estate and principality or the people for their contempt and rebellion are punished and reduced unto reason which causeth the alterations to cease and procureth a peace whereof we could produce many examples both antient and moderne if the relation of this history did not furnish us sufficiently So the generall Estates of the united Provinces seeing that King Philip would not in any fort through his wilfulnesse yeeld unto their humble suite and petitions and notwithstanding all the offers they could make to purchase a good firme and an assured peace notwithstanding all the intercessions both of the Emperour the French King the Queen of England and other great Princes and Potentates of Christendom yet would he not give eare to any other reason but what himselfe did propound the which the said Estates did not only find unjust and unreasonable directly repugnant to their liberties constitutions and freedomes of the Countrey but also contrary to their consciences and as it were so many snares layed to catch them which were in no sort to be allowed of nor received considering the qualitie of their affaires and his according to the time In the end rejecting all feare of his power and threats seeing they were forced to enter into all courses of extremity against a Prince which held himselfe so hainously offended as no reconciliation could be expected relying upon the justice and equitie of the cause and sinceritie of their consciences which are two brazen bulwarks they were fully resolved without dissembling to take the matter thus advanced in hand and opposing force against force meanes against meanes and practises against practises to declare him quite fallen from the Seigniorie preheminence and authority which before the troubles the breach of their priviledges rights freedomes and immunities so often and so solemnly sworne by him and dispensation of his Oaths he had or was wont to have in the said Provinces respectively Whereof they made open declaration by a publick Edict the tenour whereof followeth The Generall Estates of the untited Provinces of the Netherlands to all those that these presents shall see reade or heare greeting As it is well known unto all men that a P●ince and Lord of a Countrey is ordained by God to bee Soveraign and head over his subjects and to preseveve and defend them from all injuries force violence even as a shepheard for the defence of his sheep and that the subjects are not created by God for the Prince to obey him in all he shall command bee it with God or against him reasonable or unreasonable nor to serve him as slaves and bondmen but rather the Prince is ordained for his subjects without the which he cannot be a Prince to governe them according unto equity and reason to take care for them and to love them even as a father doth his children or a shepheard his sheep who putteth both his body and life in danger to defend and preserve them If the Prince therefore faileth herein and in stead of preserving his subjects doth outrage and oppresse them depriving them of their priviledges and ancient customes commandeth and will be served of them as of slaves they are no longer bound to respect him as their Soveragn Prince and Lord but to esteeme of him as a Tyrant neither are the subjects according unto Law and season bound to acknowledge him for their Prince so as without any offence being done with deliberation and the authority of the Estates of the Countrey they may freely abandon him and in his place chuse another for their Prince and Lord to defend them especially when as the subjects by humble suit intreatie and admonitions could never mollifie their Princes heart nor divert him from his enterprises an tyrannous designes so as they have no other meanes left them to preserve their antient libertie their wives children and posterity for the which according to the lawes of nature they are bound to expose both life and good as for the like occasions we have seene it to fall out often in divers Countries whereof the examples are yet fresh in memory The which ought especially to bee of force in these Countries the which have alwayes been and ought to be governed according unto the oath taken by their Princes when they receive them conformable to their priviledges and antient customes having no power to infringe them besides that most part of the said Provices have alwayes received and admitted their Princes and Lords upon certaine conditions and by sworn contracts the which if the Prince shall violate hee is by right fallen from the rule and superiority of the Countrey So it is that the King of Spaine after the decease of the Emperour Charles the fifth his father of famous memory from whom all these Countries were transported unto him forgetting the services which as well his father as himselfe had received of these Countries and the inhabitants thereof by the which especially the King of Spain had obtained such glorious and memorable victories against his enemies as his name and power was renowned and feared throughout all the world forgetting also the admonitions which his said Imperiall Majesty had heretofore given him and contrariwise hath given eare beliefe and credit unto them of the Councell of Spain which were about him the said Councell having conceived a secret hatred against these Countries and their Liberties for that it was not lawfull for them to command there and to govern them or to merit among