Chamberlain Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings most Honourable Houshold Chancellor of the Exchequer with other of the Kings Privy Councel who together with the Justices of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer do out of the six for every County make choice of three who are in a written Bill by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England shortly after presented to the King who appointeth as he pleaseth one of every three presented unto him as aforesaid for every County to be Sheriff by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal for the year next following And by Authority of the King and his Laws the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England appointeth the Judges in every year their several Circuits maketh and dischargeth all Justices of the Peace And such Petitions as could not be dispatched before the end of Parliaments were frequently adjourned to be heard and determined by the Chancellor and presenteth to all Parsonages or Spiritual Benefices in the Kings right or gift which are under the value of 20 l. per annum according to the antient valuation All the Records in the Courts of Chancery Kings Bench and Common Pleas Justices of Assise and Goal delivery are to be safely kept by the Treasurer and Chamberlains of the Exchequer which the Commons of England in Parliament in the 46th year of the Reign of King Edward the third did in their Petition to the King call the Peoples perpetual evidence and our Kings of England have therefore in several of their Reigns sent their Writs and Mandates to the Chief Justices of both the Benches to cause their Records for some times therein limited to be brought into his Treasury and entrusted with the Treasurer and Chamberlains thereof in whose custody the Standard for all the Weights and Measures of England is likewise kept By an Act of Parliament made in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the third Sheriffs abiding above one year in their Offices may be removed and new ones put in their place by the Chancellor Treasurer and Chief Baron of the Exchequer taking unto them the Chief Justices of the one Beneh or the other if they be present Escheators who were and should be of very great trust and concernment in the Kingdom betwixt the King and his people were to be chosen by the Chancellor Treasurer and Chief Baron of the Exchequer taking into them the Chief Justices of the one Bench or the other if they be present but are since only made by the Lord Treasurer By a Statute made in the 14th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. the Lord Privy Seal and other great Lords of the Kings Councel are appointed to redress in Parliament delayes and errours in Judgement in other Courts By an Act of Parliament made in the 20th year of the Reign of the aforesaid King the Chancellor and Treasurer were authorized to hear complaints and ordain remedies concerning gifts and rewards unjustly taken by Sheriffs Bayliffs of Franchises and their Vnder Ministers and also concerning mainteiners and embracers of Juries taking unto them the Justices and other Sage persons such as to them seemeth meet By an Act of Parliament made in the 31th year of the Reign of that King the Lord Chancellor and Treasurer shall examine erronious Judgements given in the Exchequer Chamber And the Chancellor and Treasurer taking to them Justices and other of the Kings Councel as to them seemeth shall take order and make Ordinances touching the buying and selling of Fish By several Acts of Parliament made in the 37th and 38th year of his Reign Suggestions made by any to the King shall be sent with the party making them unto the Chancellor there to be heard and determined and the Prosecutor was to be punished if he prove them not And that upon untrue suggestions the Chancellor should award damages according to his discretion By an Act of Parliament made in the 11th year of the Reign of King Richard the second the keeping of Assises in good Towns are at the request of the Commons in Parliament referred to the Chancellor with the advice of the Judges By an Act of Parliament made in the 13th year of his Reign in every pardon for Felony Murder or Treason the Chamberlain or Vnder Chamberlain was to endorse upon the Bill the Name of him which sued for the same By an Act of Parliament made in the 20th year of his Reign no man shall go or ride armed except the Kings Officers or Ministers in doing their Office By an Act of Parliament made in the first and second year of the Reign of K. Henry the 4th no Lord is to give any Sign or Livery to any Knight Esquire or Yeoman but the King may give his honourable Livery to his menial Knights and Esquires and also to his Knights and Esquires of his Retinue who are not to use it in their Counties but in the Kings presence The Constable and Marshall of England for the time being and their Retinue of Knights and Esquires may wear the Livery of the King upon the Borders and Marches of the Realm in time of War the Knights and Esquires of every Duke Earl Baron or Baneret may wear their Liveries in going from the Kings House and returning unto it and that the King may give his honourable Livery to the Lords Temporal whom pleaseth him And that the Prince and his menials may use and give his honourable Livery to the Lords and his menial Gentlemen By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King Henry the 6th the Lords of the Councel may assign money to be coyned in as many places as they will A Letter of request may be granted by the Keeper of the Privy Seal to any of the Kings Subjects from whom Goods be taken by the King of Denmark or any of his Subjects By an Act of Parliament made in the tenth year of his Reign the Mayor of London shall take his Oath before the Treasurer of England and Barons of the Kings Exchequer wherein he shall be charged and sworn to observe all the Statutes touching Weights and Measures By an Act of Parliament made in the eleventh year of his Reign Fees Wages and Rewards due to the Kings Officers were not to be comprized within the Statute of Resumption made in the 28 th year of the Reign of the King By an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Reign of King Henry the 7th for punishments of Maintenance Embracery Perjuries Riots and unlawfull demeanors of Sheriffs and unlawfull Assemblies it was ordained That the Chancellor and Treasurer of England for the time being Keeper of the Kings Privy Seal or two of them calling unto them a Bishop and a Temporal Lord of the Kings most Honourable Councel and the two Chief Justices of the Kings
holden at the good will and pleasure of our Kings and Princes And Time in his long Travels hath not yet so let fall and left behind him those reverential duties and personal services of our Dukes Earls and Baronage as to invite a disuse or discontinuance of them when they have of late time not only when Summoned perform'd several Ministerial Offices as at the Coronation of our Kings but at other great Solemnities and Festivals as at the Feast of Saint George Where in the year 1627. being the third year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr the Lord Percy afterwards Earl of Northumberland carryed the Sword before the King the Lord Cavendish and Wentworth bearing up his Trayn the great Basin was holden by the Earls of Suffolk Devonshire Manchester and Lindsey the Earl of Devonshire the same day serving as Cupbearer the Earl of Cleveland as Carver the Lord Savage as Sewer none of the Knights of the Garter that day officiating In the year of our Lord 1638. the Earls of Kent Hartford Essex Northampton Clare Carlisle Warwick Dover St. Albans and the Viscount Rochford were summoned by the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings houshold to attend at the instalment of the Prince Knight of the Garter and in the year 1640. amongst other young Noblemen appointed to attend the King at his going to the Parliament the Duke of Buckingham Earl of Oxford and Lord Buckhurst did bear up his Trayn The Earls of Leicester had the Office of Steward of England distinguished from and not so antient as the Steward of the Houshold who injoyed but an incertain estate of during pleasure annexed to the Earldom of Leicester and accounted as parcel of it William Marshal Earl of Pembroke to be Earl Marshal of England Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex to be Constable of England and to hold some principal part of their Lands and Estates by Inheritance in Fee or in Tayl by the Tenure of those very honourable Offices and Services as the Manor of Haresfield in the County of Gloucester per servitium essendi Constabular Angliae by the Service of being Constable of England and the Offices of Earl Marshal and Constable were distinct and antiently exercised in the Kings Court as Marescalcia Curiae Constabularia Curiae were afterwards as the Learned Sir Henry Spelman conceived by some extent and enlargement gained of their Jurisdictions or rather by the Tenure of some of their Lands separately stiled Constable and Earl Marshals of England leaving the Office or Title of Sub-Marshal or Knight-Marshal to exercise some part of the Office of the Earl-Marshals Jurisdictions as more appropriate to the Kings House or Courts of Justice some antient Charters of our Kings of England before the Reign of King Henyy the second and some in his Reign after his grant of the Constableship of England was made by him to Miles of Gloucester informing us by the Subscriptions of Witnesses that there was a Constable during the Kings pleasure and sometimes two besides the Constable of England who claimed and enjoyed that Office by Inheritance The Custody of the Castle of Dover and the keeping of the Cinque-Ports were granted by King Henry the sixth to Humphrey Duke of Buckingham and the Heirs Males of his body The Earls of Oxford for several Ages and the now Earl of Lindsey descending from them as Heir General now being Stewards Keepers or Wardens of the Forest of Essex and Keepers of King Edward the Confessors antient Palace of Havering at the Bower in the said County to him and his Heirs claimed and enjoyed from a Daughter and Heir of the Lord Badlesmere and he from a Daughter and Coheir of Thomas de Clare And some of our Nobility believed it to be no abasement of their high birth and qualities to be imployed in some other Offices or Imployments near the person or but sometimes residence of the King as to be Constable of his Castle or Palace of Windsor as the late Duke of Buckingham was in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr and Prince Rupert that now is or Keeper of the Kings house or Palace of VVoodstock and Lieutenent of VVoodstock Park as the late Earl of Lindsey was for the term of each of their natural lives And some illustrious and worthy Families as that of the Marshals Earls of Pembroke Butler now Duke of Ormond the Chamberlains antiently descended from the Earl of Tancarvil in Normandy who was hereditary Chamberlain of Normandy to our King Henry the first and our Barons Dispencers have made their Sirnames and those of their after Generations the grateful Remembrancers of their very honourable Offices and Places under their Soveraign it being accounted to be no small part of happiness to have lands given them to hold by grand Serjeanty some honourable Office or attendance upon our Kings at their Coronation as to carry one of the Swords before him or to present him with a Glove for his right hand or to support his right hand whilst he held the Virge Royal claymed by the Lord Furnivall or to carry the great Spurrs of Gold before him claymed by John Hastings the Son and Heir of John Hastings Earl of Pembroke or to be the Kings Cupbearer claymed by Sir John de Argentine Chivaler And some meaner yet worthy Families have been well content to have Lands given unto them and their Heirs to hold by the Tenures of doing some personal Service to the Kings and Queens of England at their Coronations the Service of the King or Prince being in those more virtuous times so welcome to all men and such a path leading to preferment as it grew into a Proverb amongst us not yet forgotten No Fishing to the Sea no Service to the King And was and is so much a Custome of Nations as in the German Empire long before the Aurea Bulla the Golden Bull or Charter of Charles the 4th Emperour was made in the year 1356. being about the middle of the Reign of our King Edward the third and not a new Institution as many have mistaken it as is evident by the preamble and other parts of that Golden Bull which was only made to preserve an Unity amongst the seven Electors and better methodize their business and Elections The Princes Electors were by the Tenure of their Lands and Dominions to perform several services to the Emperor and his Successors As the Prince Elector or Count Palatine of the Rhine was to do the service of Arch Sewer of the Empire at the Coronation of the Emperour or other great Assemblies the Duke of Saxony Stall Master or Master of ths Horse the Marquess of Brandenburgh Chamberlain the King of Bohemia Cup-bearer and in Polonia at this day Sebradousky the now Palatine of Cracow claimeth and enjoyeth by Inheritance the Office or Place of Sword-bearer to the Crown or King of Poland And so highly and rightly valued were those Imployments and Offices as they that did but
King hath been accompted and is and ought to be the Interest of all the People of England and that the Servants and retinue of a Soveraign Prince who hath given and permitted to his Subjects so many large Liberties Immunities Exemptions Customs and Priviledges should not want those Exemptions Immunities Customs and Priviledges which are so Justly claimed by them Chap. XXI 587 Errors of the Printer PAge 22. line 2. dele now intersere after p. 34. l. 25. dele to p. 43. l. 4. dele and intersere by p. 52. l. 22 dele feirce and incult intersere rude and uncivill p. 61. l. 25. intersere always p. 62. l. 2. intersere in p. 88. l. 26. dele not p. 111. l. 28. dele yet p. 137. l. 23. dele not p. 159. interscribe Baile p. 166. l. 4. dele as p. 197. l. penult dele or interscribe as p. 217. l. 28. dele the Corsaires p. 219. l. 22. dele not p. 241. l. 6. dele unto p. 265. l. 10. dele during the and interline in a more â—itting place p. 416. l. 13. r. Aevo p. 423. l. 17. r. Conquestorem 549. in margin r. Cromwell p. 453. l. 2. intersere pleg l. 4. r. distringas l. 14. intersere them p. 460. in margin r. Valentinus l. 16. r. nobiles p. 461. in margin r. Cassanaeus l. 10. r. noblemen p 475 l. 2. r. Commons p. 527. l. 19. intersere of Westminster p. 552. from thence to page 555. mispaged in p. 543. l. 4. intersere it p. 596. l. 27. interline of p. 614. l. 20. dele an Asilum or intersere a which with some other literal faults redundancies omissions of particles and Errors of the Press are desired to be amended and excused The Reasons aswell as Law of the Priviledges and Freedom of the Kings Servants in Ordinary from Arrests and Troubles of and in their Persons and Estates before Leave or Licence obtained of the King their Royal Master and Soveraign IF the Rights of Soveraignty and Majesty and it's Legal Rational and necessary Protection and Preservation of the People in their several Interests and Priviledges That due care which they ought to take of him and the means wherewith he should do it the Honour of the King and the support and maintainance of it the Reverence and Respect which they should upon all occasions manifest to their Prince and Common Parent and the influence which all or most of his affairs have or may have in their successes and consequences Good or Evil upon all or the greatest part of the Affairs of the People were not enough as it is abundantly sufficient to perswade them to an abstaining or abhorrency from the Incivility of late practiced to Arrest or Trouble the Persons or Estates of the Kings Servants in Ordinary before Leave or Licence obtained of the King their Royal Master and the Soveraign aswel of the one as the other For he that hath not been a very great stranger to reason and the Customes and Laws of this Nation aswell as others may without any suspicion of Error acknowledge that it is and will be a due to Majesty and the Servants of it Yet the Civility long ago in Fashion and not yet abolished in the Neighbourhood and Custom of Mankinde one towards the other might invite them unto it When it hath been heretofore a part of the Law of Nations Nature Christianity Neighbourhood Civility and the Practice thereof which no Law or Good Custome hath yet repealed not to Arrest or bring into question at Law a Neighbours Servant for a Debt due or Injuries received without an Intimation or Notice first given or a kind of Licence obtained to or from that Servants Master to the end that the Love and Respect which ought to be betwixt them might not be dislocated or disturbed and the offending Servants Masters attendance Business or Affairs prejudiced And being constantly held and observed betwixt Friends Relations Kinred Neighbours and even Strangers where any Respect was thought fit to be tendered did probably give a Rise or beginning to that long and experimented Adage or Proverb Love me and Love my Dog Insomuch as a Neighbours Dog causing some mischief or Inconveniences by killing of Sheep or biting such as he supposed were not well willers to the Family and came to his Masters house is not troubled or put into any danger of Beating or Hanging without a Complaint first made to his Master thereof for where the Master hath any respect his Servants and all that do belong to his Family do not seldom partake of it From all which or some of those Causes or Grounds Rights of Soveraignty and duty of the People tacito rerum antiquitatis consensu by a long usage and consent of time and Antiquity came that hitherto uncontroul'd usage and Custom allowed and Countenanced by our Common Laws and reasonable Customs not contradicted or abrogated by any Act of Parliament or Statute Laws That the Kings Maenial Servants and Officers in Ordinary should not be Taken Imprisoned Arrested or Compelled to appear in any Courts of Justice in Civil Actions or Causes without a Petition for Leave or Licence obtained First delivered unto the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold or other great Officer of the Kings under whose more Immediate Jurisdiction such servant or Officer is whereupon after a Citation of the party and if for debt or otherwise a short and reasonable time as six moneths or something less which in the Ordinary course of Process and Proceedings at Law and the vacations and absence of the Terms is not seldom as soon as they could by Arrest or Compulsion arrive or come unto their Ends and many times a moneth or a Fortnights time prefixed for satisfaction is as easily procured as asked SECT I. That there is a Greater Honour due unto the Palace and House of the King then unto any of the Houses of his Subjects FOr we may well believe that our Laws Reasonable Customs and the Practice of our Forefathers were not out of the way or mistaken in their Respects to the Servants of their Prince when his Aula House or Court wherein he and they Inhabited as a place separate from Common uses or Addresses tanquam Sacra had a Majestatem quandam certain awe or Majesty belonging to it which was as Ancient as the days of King Ahasuerus that great Monarch of Persia and Media who Raigned from India unto Ethiopia over an hundred and twenty seven Provinces when Esther as we are informed by Sacred Writ could alleage that all the Kings Servants and the People of the Kings Provinces did know that whosoever whether man or woman should come unto the King into the Inner Court who is not called there is one Law of his to put him to death Except such to whom the King shall hold out the Golden Scepter that he may live And none might enter into the Kings Gate clothed with sackcloth Tiridates the great King of Armenia
Spanish Ambassadors not long ago in Holland and a little after in England the cares which Princes to whom they are sent have taken to give them satisfaction or to prevent their jealousies or discontents their gifts and presents unto them their Secretaries and principal of their Servants personal and peculiar honours and favours to Ambassadors distinct from a greater to their Soveraign and their sometimes bold and resolute refusals where they found any diminution or neglects of which Bodin Besolus our learned Doctor Zouch and Sir John Finet in their learned Books de Marsellaer Albericus Gentilis Legatis Legationibus concerning Embassies and the Relation of the Earl of Carlisle's stout and prudent management of his Embassies into Muscovy will afford plenty of instances and examples With the more than ordinary civilities and respects used by divers Princes Cities Common-wealths to Ambassadors of Princes and States in League or Friendship with them in their passage to the Princes to whom they are sent or return from their Embassies when the character or representation of their Prince being laid by they are but little more than what they were in their former degrees or qualities as our Sir Daniel Harvey sent to Constantinople and the Earl of Winchelsea in his coming home from the like Imployment can testifie And the great care which hath been taken by the Law of Nations and all civilized Kingdoms States and Commonwealths of Christendom of the Priviledges of Ambassadors which at the highest esteem that can be given them are no other than Extraordinary Servants which for their great abilities in Learning State affairs or Foreign Languages were made choice of by their Soveraign sometimes out of the Subjects and Nobility not immediate Servants and at other times some of the Servants and Officers in Ordinary as of the Privy-Chamber and Bed-Chamber held by the Custome of the wiser and more prudent part of Nations to be so sacred and inviolable as the Emperor Augustus made the putting to death of his Ambassadors and Heralds Titurius and Arunculeius by the Germans to be the cause of a War made against them and swore never to cut the hair of his head and beard untill he had punished them for that misdemeanor And the Greeks and Romans those great Masters of wisdom prudence and civilities and the Persians and many other Nations made it to be some of their greatest concernments to vindicate any the least indignities or injuries offered or done unto their Messengers or Ambassadors And our Laws have informed us that in the 22 th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3 d. one John at Hill was condemned for High Treason for the Murder of A. de Walton Nuncium Domini Regis missum ad mandatum Regis exequendum the Kings Ambassador for which he was drawn hanged and beheaded for saith Sir Edward Coke Legatus ejus vice fungitur a quo destinatur honorandus est sicut ille cujus Vicem gerit Legatos violare contra jus gentium est and Ambassador represents him that sent him and is to be honoured accordingly for it is against the Law of Nations to violate or wrong an Ambassador Et honor Legati honor mittentis est Proregis dedecus redundat in Regem the honour of an Ambassador is the honour of him that sends him and any dishonour done unto him redounds unto his Prince or Superiour For it was in the Reign of King Richard the second adjudged in Parliament to be High Treason to kill or violate an Ambassador of any Prince or Commonwealth in the Case of John Imperiall an Envoy or Ambassador from Genoa slain by the malice of some of his Adversaries and declared in Parliament que le case eslant examine dispute inter les Seigniors Commons puis monstre al Roy en pleine Parliament estoit illonques nostre Seignior le Roy declares determinus assentus que tiel fait coupe est Treason crime de Royall Majesty blemye en quel case il ne doit allower a nullui priviledge del Clergie that the Case being examined and debated betwixt the Lords and Commons and afterwards shewed to the King in full Parliament it was then before the King determined and agreed that the act was Treason and a crime in derogation of Royal Majesty in which no Priviledge of Clergy was to be allowed The great Gustavus Adolphus not long ago victorious King of Sweden made the neglect and slighting of his Ambassadors by Ferdinand the second Emperor of Germany a Justification or Proem of his after most famous and notable exploits against him in Germany and his Ambassadors to be had in such regard as they could safely travel through Fields of his subdued Enemies blood conquered Towns Cities sacked and Armies ready marshalled to act and execute the direfull Tragedies of Battel and Bellona and to be every where protected and not injured And within a few years last past Don Mario the then Popes Brother being guilty only of an affront given at Rome to the Duke de Crequy the French Kings Ambassador by the Corsairs the Popes Guards the Popes Nuntio was in great displeasure sent away from the Court of France and a War so threatned as that imagined Spiritual Father of the Popish part of Christendom was with great loss of reputation enforced to submit to such Conditions as the King of France claiming to be the eldest Son of the Church would besides the punishment of the Delinquents impose upon him and suffer a Pillar to be erected in Rome to testifie the outrage and the severe punishment inflicted for it to the wonder of many Nations and people coming thither that he who sold so many Millions of Pardons to the living and dead should not be able to obtain of the Most Christian King a pardon and forbearance of that Pillar of Ignominy which continuing some years was lately as a signal favour to the See of Rome permitted to be taken down and no more to be remembred And it was not without cause that our Royal Soveraign did in October 1666. by his Letter to the Estates of Holland and the United Provinces justly charge upon them amongst other the causes of his War with them injuries done unto him and his Subjects by the imprisoning of the Domestick Servants of his Envoy and likewise of his Secretary and putting a Guard upon his House And was so necessary an observance amongst Princes and Republiques as howsoever they then faltred and misused their Wisdoms therein that Nation and their Union of Boores Mariners Artificers and others although many of them could hardly find the way to put off their hats or use civilities unto their great and Princely Protectors the Illustrious Princes of Orange have deemed it to be a part of the Subsistence and Policy of that now flourishing Republique to be strict observers of all manner of civilities and respects to the Ambassadors of Princes And the Swisses
restored to that dignity he humbly upon his knees besought the King that he might not be restored to that which was so novel and strange The Earls or Counts of England antiently and before those dignities came to be granted for life or hereditary were as to matters of justice and government of Provinces as the Dukes Officiary and before the Norman Conquest were as our learned Selden observed sometimes Synonimously entituled Dux or Dukes as the Dukes were sometimes styled only Comites or Earls and signifyed men of Officiary dignities or Councellors of State about their Prince and Soveraign and were called Comites quia a Comitatu vel Familia Principis erant in regard of their dayly or often attendance upon the King or relating to his House or Family quasi in laborum principalium curarumque consortium assumpti a principibus qui per eos maxima quaeque gravissima negotia expedire consueverant and as more especially imployed to assist their Kings and Princes in their publique cares and labours and the dispatch of their most weighty affairs that custom or usage being Aeno Taciti when Tacitus wrote his Book or Annals and Agricola his Son-in-law wrote his book de moribus Germanorum of the Customs Manners of the Germans amongst the Germans about the Reign of the Emperour Domitian where the Comites Earls or Graven were Regum suorum Comites atque Adsessores sacra vice Judicantes Jura per pagos vicosque reddiderint were Attendants upon their Kings sate in the Courts of Justice as Assistants unto them did as their Delegates distribute Justice not only there but in all the Towns and Villages Et ex more antiquis Germanis passim usitato ex precipua Nobilitate illos sumebant qui provinciis munitioribus locis imperitarent and it was a custom amongst the old Germans every where used to choose out of the chief Nobility such as might govern the Provinces and places of most concernment Et Verus Imperator confecto Bello Parthico Provincias Comitatibus suis regendas dedit and Verus the Emperour after his warr ended with the Parthians made certain of his great men or followers his Comites governours of his Provinces who might also without an overstreining conjecture which is not here endeavoured to be asserted but is only left to the further enquiry and disquisition of the learned be called Comites in imitation probably or resemblance of the fidus Achates and Comites faithfull Attendants of the warlike and afflicted Eneas from whence the Romans we and many other Nations have believed their discenâ—s and originals not a little honoured and in the darkness and obscurity of former times and ages was the Gades ne plus ultra and farthest reach of many of the Europaean Brittish and Western Nations Genealogies were tanquam administri adjutores Consilii ac rerum participes proceres Palatii habentur as Ministers of State coadjutors and partakers of their Princes Counâ—el and Affairs and the most noble of the Empire attending upon the Emperors So as Marcellinus was said to be Comes Justiniani a near attendant upon the person and affairs of the Emperour Justinian who Reigned about the year of Christ 520. and were so entituled saith Loyseau a learned and considerable French Author pour ce que les Empereurs esloyent contrainctes faire plusieurs voyages pour mainteniâ— ceste grande estendue de leur Empire appelloient Comites leurs Compagnons ceux qui les accompanoient suivoyent for that the Emperors being constrained to make many voyages to maintain and keep in order that great extent of their Empire termed those which accompanyed and followed them Comites or their Companions as Julius Caesar was before contented to call his Souldiers Commilitones or fellow Souldiers de sorte que Comitatâ—s Comites estoient a Eux proprement ce que nous disons icy la Court les Courtisons and Comitatus antiently signified ipsam Aulam familiam Principis the Palace or Court of the Prince and Earldome and Counts or Comites properly signified that which we call the Court or Courtiers saith L' Oysean nom qui en â—in soulz Constantin fut un titre de haute dignite attribue particulierement aux principaux Officers de l' Empire a name which at length under Constantine came to be a Title of great dignity particularly attributed to the principal Officers of the Empire As the Comites Praetorii sacri Patrimonii Consistorii Domesticorum Peditum Equitum rei privatae largitionum portus Riparum Earls of the Sacred Palace or Steward or Master of the household or Court of the casual Revenue as a Lord Treasurer of the Privy Councel of the Guards of Horse and Foot of the private expences or privy purse the tributes rewards or bounties of the Aquaeducts Havens Lymits or Borders of Rivers Comes Stabuli Constable or Earl Marshall Comes Castrensis sacri Palatii Captain of the guards Comes Africae Comes Britanniae Comes littoâ—is Saxonici per Brittanniam Earl of Africk Earl of Brittain and Earl of the Saxon Shores in or by Brittain Comes limitum Italiae Earl of the Borders of Italy Comes Illirici Hispaniarum Orientis Earl of Illiria or Sclavony and the East And unto them and other Earls gave many great and noble Privileges and Immunities and were accompted by the Civil Law to be as the Emperors more especial Servants or Domesticks Et inter Cubicularios recensetur Comes Domorum and the Earl or Master of the Houshold though imployed in Cappadocia farr from the Imperial Coure was reckoned as of the Emperors Bed-chamber as was likewise the Comes Sacrae Vestis Earl or Master of the Wardrobe had their Legions Palatine and Comitacenses Regiments or Brigades under the Ensigns of the Counts Palatine and unto them and other Earls gave many great and noble Privileges and Immunities entertaining them in some honourable Offices in their Courts and Palaces and afterwards upon their merit and diligence therein did assign them as there was occasion to the Government of Provinces wherein they as the Dukes Marquesses and Earls had at the first but a grant or estate durante bene placito at the pleasure of the Prince or for a certain number of years afterwards for life and after that in the declension of the Empire or the Soveraign Authority sometimes by Usurpation or Custom and very often per sacros Codicillos by Grants or Letters Patents enlarged to an Estate in Tayl or Fief Masculine or of Inheritancâ— to them and their Heirs who being by those Titles of Honor and Military and Civil Offices and charges dayly or frequently conversant about the safety of the Soveraign and his people were justly accompted to be in all or most of the ages and civilized Nations Decus Gloria Imperii the Splendor and Glory of Majesty and Empire
signified by the Emblems or Figures of the Lyons guarding or supporting of Solomons Throne and astonishing Royalty Which most laudable custom was not only observed in the time of the Western and Eastern Emperors but of the Franks Goths Longobards and other Northern Nations who imitated them And from such honourable services and employments about Emperors Kings and Princes likewise were derived Count Palatines whom they found a kind of necessity to institute when they understood their other Subjects to be troubled that none but Romans had those honours and dignities conferred upon them and their Courts and Palaces appeared to be solitary and unfrequented and therefore opened the doors of honour to their Subjects of other Nations and Provinces as appears by the after usage of the Roman and Grecian Emperors and made and ordained Comites sacri Falatii Count Palatines which the Title of Count Palatine given by Charlemaine to Antholinus will further evidence and the Count Palatines of the Empire of Germany as Pasquier that learned Advocate of France hath remarked had their names from their Offices Superintendencies and Places which they antiently held au tour des Empereurs de Rome de la Suitte des Empereurs and in their service and attendance as Crmites Palatii were in Comitativa Principis in the Retinue of the Emperors which in the elder times were so reverenced and respected as it was not unfrequently in many Laws and good Authors stiled Sacra as meriting a veneration due unto Gods Vicegerents Et ipsa Principis Aula residentia and the Court and Palace of the Prince was saith Marquardus Freherus sometimes known by the name of Comitatus sacer comitatus a place of reverence more especially appropriate to honor and men deserving it and the French Kings Court is by the modern French at this day tearmed Comitatus and in the time of Charlemaine and his Son Hludowick Kings of France the Earls were tanquam Judices Judges in their several Earldomes or Provinces qui post Regem populum regere debent who next under the King as the Dukes did in their several Dukedoms were to govern the people necesse est ut tales instituantur qui sine periculo ejus qui â—os constituit quos sub se babent cum justitia aequitate gubernare officium adimplere procurent there being a necessity that such should be appointed who without danger of those who constituted or deputed them may have under them such as may govern them with Justice and Equity and do what belongeth to them And our Earls and English Nobility were of the like Character Esteem and Subserviency to our Kings and Princes when in the time of Bertulphus King of the Mercians who Reigned in England in the year of our Lord 851. such of them as had not as Sir Henry Spelman saith constant Offices or places in the Kings Court tenebantur ex more obsequii vinculo antiquissimo as also were the other Baronage in tribus maximis festivitatibuus Christi scilicet natalitiis Sancti Paschatis Pentecostes Regi Annuatim adesse cum ad curiam personam ipsius exornandum tum ad consulendum de negotiis regni statuendum que prout fuerat necessarium were by most antient custome and tye of obedience at three of the greatest Feasts in every year that is to say at Christmass Easter and Whitsontide to attend at the Kings Court as well for the honour of his Person and Court as to advise and councel him as there should be occasion in the weighty affairs of the Kingdom which saith that great light and restorer of our English Antiquities gave at the first an original and beginning to our great Councels afterwards and now called Parliaments and Johannes Saresburiensis stiled all the great Officers of the English Court Comites Palatini Earls or Lords of the Palace Royal at least such as being Earls were also honoured with the greater Court Dignities and had relation to the Dignities and Privileges of our English Nobility Such service and attendance of the Nobility upon the person and affairs of their Soveraign being not unusual in the dayes of Jehoiakim King of Judah when Michaiah the son of Gemariah found all the Princes sitting in the Kings house in the Scribes chamber and standing besides the King when the Roll of Baruch was read When the great King Ahasuerus made a Feast unto all his Princes and his servants the power of Persia and Media the Nobles and Princes of the Provinces being before him and he shewed the honour of his Excellent Majesty he advised concerning the misbehaviour of his Queen Vaschi with the wise men which knew the times for so was the Kings manner towards all that knew law and judgement and with the seven Princes of Persia and Media which saw the Kings face and sate the first in the Kingdome And those Officiary Dignities Honors and Privileges of the English Nobility were so consonant to the Law of Nations and the usage and customs of the Empire as in Anglia tam ante quam post Conquestore Wilhelmum Normannum Comites seu Graviones Justitiarii hisque cum ad privata quam publica judicia suis fuere in comitatibus and not only before but for sometimes after the Norman Invasion did under their Kings preside and govern the Justice of that County or Territory of which they were Earls and had allowed unto them the Tertium denarium Third penny or part of the fines and amerciaments and the customs and some other casual profits belonging to the Crown in their several Counties as our Selden a most universally learned and judious Lawyer hath in the Earldoms of Chester and Oxford observed and for some of the Ages succeeding the Norman atchievment have been Chief Justices of Englund as in the Reign of King Stephen Awbrey de Vere Earl of Guisnes Father of Awbrey de Vere the first Earl of Oxford Robert de Bellomont or Beaumont Earl of Leicester in the Reign of King Henry the 2d and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter Earl of Essex in the Reigns of King Richard the first and King John our Bracton acknowledging that our Earls and Nobility were upon occasions to attend upon the person of their Sovereign Prince calleth our Earls Comites a Comitando sive a Socieâ—ate from or by reason of their accompanying or attendance upon the person of the Prince saith dici possunt Consules Reges enim tales sibi associant ad consulendum and our Nation was not without its Local Count Palatines who had greater authorities and profits in their Counties and Jurisdictions than other Earls as those of Chester Lancaster Pembroke and the Palatineships belonging to the Bishopicks of Durham and Ely And Hoveden our old Annals and Selden that Monarch of Letters do tell us that King John die Coronationis suae accinxit Willielmuw Marescallum gladio Comitatus de Striguil
Galfridum filium Petri gladio Comitatus Essex qui licet antea vocati essent Comites administrationem suarum Comitatuum habuissent tamen non erant accincti gladio Comitatus ipsa illa die servierunt ad mensam Regis accincti gladiis did upon the day of his Coronation gird William Marshal with the Sword of the Earldome of Striguil or Pembroke and Jeffery Fitz-Peter with the Sword of the Earldome of Essex who although they were before called Earls and had the government of their Earldomes yet until then were not invested or girt with the Sword of their Earldomes and the same day they waited upon the King as he sate at meat with their Swords girt about them and the service of our Earls and Nobility were held to be so necessary about their Soveraign in the Reign of King Edward the second as John de Warrenna Earl of Surrey had in the 14th year of that King a dispensation not to appear before the Justices Itinerant before whom in certain of his affairs he had a concernment in these words viz. Edwardus dei gratia Rex Angliae c. Justitiariis notris Itineratur in Com. Norff. Quia dilectum fidelem nostrum Johannem de Warrenna Comitem Surrey quibusdam de causiis juxta latus nostrum retinemus hiis diebus per quod coram vobis in Itinere vestro in Com. praedicto personaliter comparere non potest ad loquelas ipsum in eodem Itinere tangentes prosequendi defendendi nos ex causa praedicta Indempnitati praefati Comitis provideri cupientes in hac parte vobis mandamus quod omnes praedictas loquelas de die in diem coram vobis continuetis usque ad Octabas Paschae prox futur Ita quod extunc citra finem Itineris vestri praedicti loquelae illae andiantur terminantur prout de jure secundum legem consuetudines regni nostri fuerit faciend Edward by the grace of God King of England c. to his Justices about to go the Circuit in our County of Norfolk sendeth greeting In regard that for certain causes we have commanded the attendance of John of Warren Earl of Surrey upon our person so as he cannoâ— personally appear before you in your Circuit to prosecute and defend certain actions or matters wherein he is concerned we desiring to indempnifie the said Earl therein for the cause aforesaid do command you that you do from day to day adjorn the said Pleas and Actions until eight dayes after Easter next so as you may according to the laws and custome of our Kingdome before the end of your said Circuit hear and determine the said matters or actions In which Writ the said Earl being descended from VVilliam de VVarrenna who marryed a daughter of King VVilliam Rufus was not stiled the Kings Cousin as all the Earls of England have for some ages past been honored either by the stile of Chancery or the Secretaries of State in a Curiality with which the more antient and less Frenchified times were unacquainted for notwithstanding an opinion fathered upon our learned Selden that in regard the antient Earls of England being the Cousins or of the consanguinity or affinity of William the Conqueror or many of the succeeding Kings those Earls that were afterwards created did enjoy that honourable Title of the Kings Cousin it will by our Records and such Memorials as time hath left us be evidenced and clearly proved that all the Earls which William the Conqueror and his Successors have created were not of their Kindred or Alliance and those that were of the consanguinity of our Kings and Princes as Awbrey de Vere the first Earl of Oxford whose Father Awbrey de Vere marryed the Sister by the half blood of William the Conquerour was neither in the grants of the Earldome of Oxford and office of Great Chamberlain of England by Maud the Empress or King Henry the second her Son stiled their Cousin nor William de Albiney formerly Earl of Sussex who marryed Adeliza Widdow of King Henry the first Daughter of Godfrey Duke of Lorrain in the grant of the Earldome Castle and Honour of Arundel by King Henry the second was termed that Kings Cousin neither in the recital in other grants wherein the great Earls of Leicester and Chester are mentioned is there any such intimation for in the first year of the Reign of King John William Marshall Earl of Pembroke William Earl of Salsbury and Ranulph Earl of Chester and Lincoln in the second year of King Henry the third had it not and in the Summons of Parliament Diem clausit extremum and other grants or writs of divers of the succeeding Kings in the former ages until about the Reign of King Edward the fourth where mention was made of some of those and other great Earls of this Kingdom there were none of those honorary Titles and it is not at this day in the ordinary Writs and Process where they are named either as Plaintiffs or Defendants and in France where those graces are in the Royal Letters and Missives frequently allowed to the greater sort of the Nobility howsoever the Queen Mother and Regent of France was about the year 1625. pleased in a Letter to the late George Duke of Buckingham to give him the honour to be called her Cousin very often omitted And those honours of attending their Kings and being near his person or being imployed in his Royal commands were so desirable by as many as could by their virtue antiently the Seminary and cause of all honour obtain it as they thought the service of their Prince not happiness enough unless their Heirs and after Generations as well as themselves might partake of the honour to do service unto him and therefore could be well content to have some of their Lands which some of our Kings of England gave them which they hoped to hold unaliened to them and their Heirs in Fee or in Tayl astrictae obliged and tyed also as their persons to those no inglorious services as the Earls of Oxford holding the Castle of Hedingham in the County of Essex and the Manor of Castle Campes in the Counties of Cambridge and Essex to them and their Heirs in Tayl by the Tenor and Service of being great Chamberlain of England and the Manors of Fingrith in the County of Essex and Hormead or Hornemead in the County of Hertford descended unto them by the Marriage of a Daughter and Heir of the Lord Sanford by the Service and Tenure of being Chamberlain to the Queens of England die Coronationis suae upon the dayes of their Coronation that of great Chamberlain of England being an Office distinct and separate from that of Chamberlain of the Kings House which was as appeareth by many Charters of our antient Kings and their Chamberlains Subscriptions thereunto as witnesses long before the grant of great Chamberlain of England and as then are now only
the Coasts of Guinee in Africa a Country not at all acquainted with learning or the more civilized Customes of Africa Europe or Asia those that they take for their Nobility have a liberty which the vulgar have not to trade in every place as they please sell and buy slaves have their Drums and Trumpets play as they think good before them and those who are advanced for any Noble Atcheivement have always the principal charges in the Army Nor should our Nobility or the Kings servants be debarred of any of their just rights or privileges when as per reductionem ad principia by a view and reflection upon the Original and causes of all those many priviledges and immunities granted or permitted by our Kings of England unto others of his Subjects and people it will appear that his own servants in Ordinary should not be grudged that which by so many grounds of law and right reason and the antient and reasonable Customes of England may be believed to belong unto them CHAP. XVII That the Immunities and Priviledges granted and permitted by our Kings of England unto many of their People and Subjects who were not their Servants in Ordinary do amount unto asmuch and in some more then what our Kings Servants in Ornary did or do now desire to enjoy FOr ab hac solis luoe from those or the like rays and beams of Majesty and emanations of right reason and necessity of the Kings affairs which notwithstanding the late groundless mad and fond rebellious principle of seperating the Kings person from his Authority and a pretended supremacy in the Parliament or at the least a co-ordination should not be disturbed came and was derived that grand priviledg of the Nobility and Baronage of England many of whom are not his Domesticks not to be molested in time of Parliament or forty days before the beginning of it in their coming unto it upon the Kings Summons and as many days after the end of a Parliament in their retorn to their Habitations though there is no direct way or Journey from their habitations to any place in England where the Parliament is to be kept or holden which can require so much expence of time as twenty days in travelling unto it or twenty days in retorning home by any Process Writs or Summons out of any the ordinary or extraordinary Courts of Justice law or equity the Baronage of England enjoying those priviledges in the 18 th year of the Raign of King Edward the first which were then not newly granted or permitted but were antient and justly and legally to be insisted upon as the punishment of the Prior of the holy Trinity in London not meanly fortified with his own priviledges and the power and protection of the Church and that also of Bogo de Clare who was imprisoned and fined two thousand Marks to the King at that time a very great sum of mony pro transgressione sibi facta for the trespass committed against the King for citing Edmond Earl of Cornwal in Westminster Hall in the time of Parliament to appear before the Arch-bishop of Canterbury whose spiritual Court and Power was then very predominant as hath been before mentioned and it appeareth in the Records of that Kings Raign that he refused to give leave to the Master of the Temple to distrein the Bishop of St. Davids in Parliament time for the Rent of an house held of him in London and answered quod non videtur honestum quod Rex concedat tempore Parliamenti sed alio tempore distringat that it would not be just or fitting for the King to grant such a Licence in time of Parliament but at another time he might distrein and by a very antient right are to be exempted from arrest and the Ordinary Course of Process when there were no Parliaments The Writ of Summons directed to the Sheriffs for the Election of two Knights the wisest and most discreet of every Shire and County of England the County Palatine of Chester then only excepted and for two Burgesses to be sent unto Parliament out of the Cities and certain Boroughs of England the King in the Parliament being without suspition of any unwarrantable conjecture to be rationally believed to have been first framed and sent out in K. Henry the thirds name in the 49 th year of his Raigne by the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester after the Battle of Lewis in Sussex wherein he and his Son Prince Edward afterwards King Edward the first were taken Prisoners by them and other the Rebellious Barons who had taken armes against him as my learned and worthy friend Mr. William Dugdale Norroy King at Armes by comparing the date of those Writs the one bearing date the 14 th day of December at Worcester in the 49 th year of the Raign of that King and the other at Woodstock the 24 th of December in the same year to meet at London on the Octaves of St. Hiâ—lary then next ensuing with the day or time of that Battle and that Kings imprisonment hath after it had for so many Ages past escaped the Industry Inquiries Observations and Pens of all other our English Writers Annalists Chronicles Antiquaries very judiciously and ingeniously observed which Summons of the Commons to Parliament doth not saith Mr. William Prynn appear to have been put in Execution untill about the 23th year of the Raign of King Edward the first whence by Regal Indulgencies and no Innate or Inherent right of their own but ab hoc fonte from the same spring and fountain of the attendance and affairs of the King proceeded the priviledges of Parliament for the Members of the house of Commons in Parliament to be free from actions at Law or Pleas in time of Parliament as Early as the raign of King Edward the second when he sent his Writ or Proclamation to the Justices of Assize in all the Counties of England to supersede all actions against the Barons and others summoned to Parliament In the 11 th year of the raign of King Richard the second upon a riot and trespass committed upon the Lands Goods Servants and Tenants of Sir John Derwintwater chosen to be a Member of Parliament for the County of Cumberland a Commission was granted by that King under the great Seal of England to Henry de Percy Earl of Northumberland to inquire by a Jury of the County of Westmerland concerning the same and to cause to be arrested and taken all that should be found guilty thereof and to appear before the King and his Councell wheresoever he should be 15 days after the Michaelmass then next ensuing In the fifth year of the Raign of King Henry the fourth the Commons in Parliament alledging that whereas according to to the Custome of the Realm the Lords Knights Citizens and Burgesses coming to Parliament at his Command and there staying and in retorning to their Countrys ought With their men and
and unfitting a course or method of Government For can any man that is Master of the least grain of Reason or Prudence think it safe for a Kingdom so to restrain if it could be a Soveraign Prince when a person in time of Pestilence or otherwise shall with a Plague-Sore running upon him come into the presence of the King who in case of Leprosie when it was more frequent than now it is can for the preservation of His People from the infection thereof make His Writ de Leproso amovendo command the Leper to be removed to some other place that He should have no power to bid any of His Servants to cause him to be taken away or put in prison Or that King James when his Life was assaulted by the Assassinate which Earl Gowrey had appointed to murther him did transgress any Law of Scotland Nature or Nations when he did arrest and struggle with him until the loyal Sir John Ramsey came to his Rescue Or that that prudent Prince after his coming into England did break any Law of England Nature or Nations or not perform the Office of a King when by his own Authority he did without sending to the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench or a Justice of Peace for his Warrant cause Sir Thomas Knivet and others to apprehend Guydo Faux but some minutes before the Match should have been secretly and undiscovered laid in order to the firing of the Gunpowder and other Matterials which were shortly after to take fire for the accomplishment of the intended treason of him and his wicked Complices to destroy the King Prince Nobility and the Chiefest of his People assembled in Parliament and all that were in or near the Cities of London and Westminster by the Gunpowder Plot of blowing up the Houses of Parliament And whether a King may not in the like case of Contempt or Danger as well do it as he may do where a Souldier prest in the Kings Service upon a Certificate by the Captain into the Chancery being the Watch-Tower or Treasury of the Kings Justice that he absented himself send his Writ or Mandate to one of his Serjeants at Arms to take him which Sir Edward Coke saith may be done per Legem terrae by the Law of the Land and may upon a Certificate of an Abbot or Prior into the Chancery do the like by his Writ to the Sheriff to take a man professed in Religion that is Vagrant and alloweth it to be Lex Terrae a Legal Process so to do in honorem Religionis in honour and respect to Religion or may not as wel imprison a man for a Contempt as Discharge him Or why He may not Arrest or cause any man to be Arrested for Felony or Treason or but suspition thereof when Sir Edward Coke is of opinion any man may do in the Kings Name upon a common Fame or Voice or Arrest a man by warranty of Law and of his own Authority which woundeth another dangerously or keepeth company with a notorious Thief whereby he is suspected or if the King shall not upon necessity or extraordinary occasions be enabled to do it for that supposed rather than any reason at all that he ought not so to do in regard that no man can have an Action against Him for any wrong or injury done unto him by the King How have our Lawes and reasonable Customes for many Centuries and Ages past submitted unto and not at all complained of the Kings Seizure of Lands but suspected to be forfeited or of Lands aliened without Licence or pardon of Alienation and the like Or why should not our Kings have as much liberty as the holy King Edward the Confessour might have had if he would to have commanded a Thief to be apprehended for stealing in the Royal Lodgings when he bad him onely be gone lest Hugeline his Chamberlain should come in and take him Or as legally as King Edward the Third and his Council did commit one that was found arm'd in his Palace to the Marshalsea whence he could not be bayl'd or deliver'd until the Kings Will and Pleasure should be known Or as it was adjudged in the thirty nineth year of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth when in an Action of Trespass the Defendant justified the doing thereof by the Command of the King when he was neither Bayliff nor Officer of the Kings and it was adjudged by the Judges that he might so do without any Deed or Writing shewed for it or if they should mistake in their Arrests or Imprisonments of suspected Traytors or Felons should not have as much liberty as a Justice of Peace hath in criminal matters or as the Judges have in his Courts of Justice in civil Actions where the parties that mistake or bring their Actions where they should not or Arrest one man in stead of another are onely punished with Costs of Suit or Actions of False Imprisonment but not the Judges or Justices of Peace for howsoever some Flatterers when King Richard the Third having murthered his Nephews and usurped the Crown and sate one day in the High Court of Chancery had in some of the Pleadings or Causes heard before him alledged that the King could do no wrong and some of our Lawyers have since so much believed it as they have reduced it into a kind of Maxime and given it a place in some of their Arguments Reports Yet Bracton in the Reign of King Henry the Third and Justice Stamford in the Reign of Queen Mary did believe the King might unwillingly by Himself or His Officers or Ministers do wrong and declared the Law to be both in Bractons and Stamfords time that in such Cases the Subjects where they have any matter of Complaint or Grievance need not want their legal Remedies by Traverse Monstrans de Droit or Petition the reason of the latter being as Stamford saith because the Subject hath no other Remedy against the King but to supplicate him by Petition for the Dignity sake of the Person And a late Experience hath told us how a Dispute betwixt our two Houses of Parliament whether a Great Person accused of Delinquency might be Arrested and put under Custody before his Charge or Accusation could be made ready gave the Party opportunity to escape into the Parts beyond the Seas and the Disputants leisure and time enough to agree of the matter And it should be remote enough from any the suspition of Errour or over-credulity for any man to think an Arrest or Imprisonment by the immediate Command of the King in the case of Treason or Felony or but suspition of either of them not to be as legal as that of a Justice of Peace made by a Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England in his Name and by his Authority derived under him And those who will take out Sir Edward Coke's before mentioned Lessons and enter themselves into
neque regnum salvum incolume neque regia vis dignitas elucescere possit there being certain properties or qualities requisite to a Superiority without which neither a Kingdome can be in any safety nor the Kingly Honour and Dignity can manifest or shew it self And if Judges and Magistrates have a kind of participation thereof imparted unto them by their Soveraign majore ratione regum eos constituentium hisque fascibus â—tque Majestate decorantium Regia Majestas nuncupabitur with greater reason Kings who adorned them with those Ensigns or resemblances as it were of Regality and bestowed it upon them are not to want or be without it the Majesty of Kings being so much appointed and approved by God himself as he made Corah Dathan and Abiram and their Children and favorers the dire examples of his wrath and punishment but for murmuring against Moses and Aaron and saying they took too much upon them and so imprinted a reverence and esteem of Kings in the hearts and minds of mankind as Joab King Davids general of his Army having fought against Raab of the Children of Ammon would not when he was ready to do it until he had invited David to come and have the Honor of taking it least that City should be afterwards called by the name of Joab that took it And Nebucadrezzar King of Babilon during the Captivity of Jehoiakim King of Judah could attribute so much to the Rights of Majesty in Kings as he spake kindly unto him and set his Throne above the Thrones of the Kings who were with him in Babilon Wherein certainly the sad hearted people of Israel in Captivity with him did take it to be their Duty as well as their Interest to rejoyce in that parcell of Humanity and Honor which was done unto him when as long before the Palatia or Curiae Palaces of their Kings were so highly Honored by them as the 122 Psalm of the Kingly Prophet David exhorted that people to Pray that Peace might be within the Walls and Prosperity within her Palaces The Glory and Honor of Solomon was accompted to be no less than the Interest Delight and Joy of the people of Israel when after his Feast upon the Dedication of the Temple and his Sacrifice of the Peace offerings they Blessed the King and went unto their Tents joyfull and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Loâ—d had done for David his Servant and for Israel his people The Romans so experimented the Honor of their Emperors living or dead to be the great Interest of their people as they that fled to their Statues were protected from their Pursuers whether it were in Civil matters or criminal The Germans their Successors in that Empire took it ill in the Reign of their Charles the fifth Emperour who was likewise King of Spaine that the Spanish Grandees or other of that Nobility did give so much Honor as they usually did to their Princes and Emperors cases of Treason only excepted And it was beleived to be so much an Interest of our English true hearted Ancestors to be as carefull as they were Jealous of the Honor of their Kings As when Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury would in the Reign of King William Rufus peevishly hold on his resolution of disparaging of it in going to Rome to the Pope for his Pall and confirmation the great men and almost all the Nobility of the Kingdom and the other Bishops Assembled in Parliament at Rockingham Castle concerning that obstinacy of Anselme the Bishops and and many of the Nobility declared unto that Archbishop then present that the whole Kingdom did complain of him that he sought to take away the Honor of the King his Crown and Dignity and delivered their opinions that Quicunque Regiae dignitatis consuetudines tollit coronam simul regnum tollit unum quippe sine alio decenter haberi non posse whosoever took away any thing from the Kings Regality and Dignity took away at the same time both his Crown and Kingdom for the one could not Honorably subsist without the other King Edward the 3d by the advice of the Lords and Commons in Parliament in the 13th year of his Reign did Ordain that in case the Keepers of the Priviledges of the Hospitlers should incroach upon the Kings Jurisdictions and offend the Kings Dignity they should beware from thenceforth that they usurpe not any Jurisdiction in prejudice of the King and his Crown and if they did their Superiors should be charged for their fact as much as if they had been convict upon their proper Act. In a Parliament holden in the two and fortieth year of the aforesaid Kings Reign it was declared by the Lords and Commons therein Assembled that they could not assent to any thing which tended to the disherâ—son of the King and his Crown to which they were sworn The Lords and Commons in Parliament in the 14th year of the Reign of King Richard the second did pray the King that the prerogative of him and his Crown may be kept and that all things done or attempted to the conâ—rary might be redressed and that he might be as free as any of his Progenitors ever were and in the 15th year of his Reign did in Parliament again require that he would as lawfully as any of his Progenitors enjoy his Prerogative Richard Earl of Arundell in the 17 year of the Reign of the aforesaid unfortunate Prince did complain that John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster who was then moulding the Sesign which his Son afterwards accomplished by usurpation of the Throne did go Arm in Arm with the King and that it beseemed not the Dukes men to wear the same Color of Livery that the Kings did By an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Reign of King Henry the 7th the Officers or Tenants of the King were not to be retained by Liveries with others And divers of the great Nobility did in the Reign of King Henry the Eight make it one of their Articles of high Treason and great misdemeanors against Cardinal VVolsey the great ingrosser of that Kings favor and manager of his Authority for that he being suspected to have the French Pox had stood and talked so near the King as to breath in his face The extent and verge of whose Royal house or Palace at VVhitehall and the Liberties and Priviledges thereof were so little desired to be lessened or diminished as the Parliament did in the 28th year of his Reign Ordain that the Park of St. James and the street leading from Charing-cross to the Sanctuary-gate at Westminster and all the Houses Buildings Lands and Tenements on both sides of the same street or way from the said Crosse unto Westminster-hall scituate lying and being betwixt the water of the Thames on the East part and the said Park-wall on the VVest part and so forth thorough all