the Reign of King Henry the 3. bring an Assise or Action against him for it for as for our Industrious Speed setting forth in his History of England that Rhese ap Gruffith Prince of Wales coming out of Wales as far as Oxford to treat of a Peace with King Richard the First did take it in so high a scorn and indignation that the King came not in person to meet him as he returned home into his own Country without saluting the King though Earl John the Kings only Brother had with much honour conducted him from the Marches of Wales thither and that by that means the hopes of the expected peace vanished and came unto nothing hath observed that the meanest from whom love or service is expected will again expect regard And therefore the care of our Kings was not a little imployed in that way of imparting of their favours and increasing and cherishing the love and good will of their people when King Henry the Seventh whose troubles and tosses of fortune before he came unto the Crown had together with his learning and princely education made him a great Master in Policy and good Government and one of the wisest Kings that ever swaied the English Scepter did in his prudent Orders concerning his Court and Houshold and the State and Magnificence which he desired to be observed therein communicated unto me by my worthy and learned Friend William Dugdale Esquire Norroy King at Armes out of an ancient Manuscript sometimes in the custody of Charles de Somerset Knight Lord Herbert and Gower Chamberlain unto that King amongst many other Orders for the honour of the King and his House ordain that If any straunger shall come from any Noble-man or other the Gentilmen Huysshers ought to sette him in suche place convenient within the Kyngs Chamber as is mete for hym by the discrecion of the Chamberlain and Huyssher and to comaunde service for hym after his degree and the sayd Huyssher ought to speke to the Kings Almoigner Kerver and Sewer to reward hym from the Kings Board this is to say if the said Straunger happen to come whan the Kyng is at dynner Item The Gentilman Huyssher if there come any honourable personnes to the Kyng at any other tyme they ought to call with thaym the sayd personnes to the Seller Pantry and Buttry and there to commaund forth such brede mete and drynke as by his discretion shall be thought metely for thaym and this in no wise not to be with sayd in noon of thies Offices aforesayd It is to the Kings honor Item that no Gentilman Huyssher bee so hardy to take any commaundement upon him but that it may be with the Kings honor by hys discretion in these matiers to myspende the Kings vitail but where as it ought to be and if he doo he is nat worthy to occupy that rowme but for to abide the punishment of my Lord Chamberlain Item A Gentilman Huyssher ought to commaund Yeomen Huysshers and Yeomen to fetche bred ale and wine at afternoon for Lords and other Gentilmen being in the Kings Chamber whan the caas soâ— shall requyre Which and the like Magnificences of Hospitality in the Houses and Courts of our Kings and Princes supported by the Pourveyances without which the elder Kings of England before the Conquest could not have been able to susteyn the charge of their great and yearly solemn Festivals at Christmas Easter and Pentecost when ex more obsequii vinculo antiquissimo as that great and learned Antiquary Sir Henry Spelman hath observed by duty and antient custome the Lords and Barons of England did never fail to come to the Kings Palace where the Magna Concilia wittena gemotes conventus sapientum now called Parliaments were at those times to be holden and kept cum ad Curiam personam ejus exornandum tum ad consulendum de negotiis regni statuendumque prout fuerat necessarium providere de rebus illis Rex solebat corona redimitus profastu Regio se in omnibus exhibere for the honor of the King and his Court who then with his Crown upon his head and other Princely habiliments did use to shew himself unto the people and advise what was necessary to be done for the good of the Kingdom And was such an attendant upon the Grandeur and Honour of their Monarchy as it began with it and continued here amongst us till the Councill of some foolish and factious Shrubs had by a fire kindled in our then unhappy Kingdome overturned our Cedars of Libanon and made an accursed and wicked Bramble their Protector and was so necessary to the Government and Authority of our Kings and the encrease and preservation of the love and obedience of the people as we find it neither repined nor murmured at in the Reign of King Alfred who being of an almost unimitable piety and prudence and to whom this Nation ows a gratefull memory for his division of the Kingdom into Shires and Hundreds and for many a Politique Constitution did now almost 800 years ago keep a most Princely and magnificent House and a numerous company of Servants gave enterteynment of diet and lodging to many of the sons of his Nobility who were therein trayned up to all manner of Courtly and honourable exercises had three Cohorts or Bands of Life-guards every Cohort according to the ancient computation consisting if they were Horse of 132 and of Foot of a great many more the first Company attending in or about his Court or House night and day for a moneth and returning aftewards home to their own occasions tarried there by the space of two moneths the second Cohort doing likewise as the first and the third as the second by their turns and courses and had a good allowance of money and victualls in the House or Court of the King who had his ministros nobiles qui in curio Regio vicissim commorabantur in pluribus ministrantes ministeriis noble and great Officers in his Court which attended in their courses and took so much care also for them as in his last Will and Testament he gave cuilibet Armigerorum suorum to every one of his Esquires 100 marks Or that King Hardi Canutus caused his Tables to be spread four times every day and plentiously furnished with Cates and commanded that his Courtiers Servants and Guests should rather have superfluities then want any thing That William Rufus when he had built Westminster Hall 270 foot in length and 74 in breadth thought it not large enough for a Dyning Room King Richard the Second kept a most Royall Christmas where was every day spent 26 or 28 Oxen 300 Sheep with Fowl beyond number and to his Houshold came every day to meat ten thousand people as appeared by the Messes told out from the Kitchin unto three hundred Servitors and was able about two years before when the Times began to be
when he came down out of the Mount from his conference with him to be abated or lessened but shewed his care of it in the severe punishment of the gain-saying of Corah Dathan Abiram and their saying that Moses took too much upon him and is and ever hath been so essentiall very necessary to the preservation of Authority and Government and the Subjects and People under it as Saul when he had incurred the displeasure of God and his Prophet Samuel desired him not to dishonour him before the People And David when he heard how shamefully his Embassadours had been abused by the King of Ammon ordered them to stay at Jericho untill their beards were grown out The Romans who being at the first but Bubulci and Opiliones a rude Company oâ— Shepheards Herdsmen and were looked upon as such a base and rude Rabble as the Sabines their Neighbours scorned to marry or be allyed with them did afterwards in their growing greatness which like a torrent arising from a small assembly of waters did afterwards overrun and subdue the greatest part of the habitable World hold their Consuls in such veneration as they had as Cicero saith magnum nomen magnam speciem magnam majestatem as well as magnâ—m potestatem as great an outward respect and veneration as they had authority and were so jealous and watchfull over it as their Consul Fabius would rather lay aside the honour due unto his Father from a Sonne of which that Nation were extraordinary obseâ—vers then abate any thing of it and commanded his aged Father Fabius the renowned rescuer and preserver of Rome in a publique Assembly to alight from his Horse and do him the honour due unto his present Magistracy which the good old man though many of the people did at the present dislike it did so approve of as he alighted from his horse and embracing his Son said Euge fili sapis qui intelligis quibus imperes quam magnum magistratum susceperis my good Son you have done wisely in understanding over whom you command and how great a Magistracy you have taken upon you And our Offa King of the Mercians in An. Dom. 760 an Ancestor of our Sovereign took such a care of the Honour and Rights due unto Majesty and to preserve it to his Posterity as he ordained that even in times of Peace himself and his Successors in the Crown should as they passed through any City have Trumpets sounded before them to shew that the Person of the King saith the Leiger Book of St. Albans should breed both fear and honour in all which did either see or hear him Neither will it be any honour for Christians to be out-done by the Heathen in that or other their respects and observances to their Kings when the Romans did not seldome at their publique charge erect costly Statues and Memorialls of their gâ—atitude to their Emperours make chargeable Sacrifices ad aras in aedibus honoris virtutis in their Temples of Honour and Virtue could yearly throw money into the deep Lake or Gulfe of Curtius in Rome where they were like never to meet with it again pro voto salute Imperatoris as Offerings for the health and happiness of their Emperouâ—s and all the City and Senate Calendis Januarii velut publico suo parenti Imperatori strenas largiebant did give New years-gifts to the Emperour as their publick Parent bring them into the Capitol though he was absent and make their Pensitationes or Composition for Pourveyance for their Emperours to be a Canon unalâ—erable Or by the Magnesians and Smirnaeans who upon a misfortune in Warre hapned to Seleucus King of Syria could make a League with each other and cause it to be engraven in Marble pillars which to our dayes hath escaped the Iron Teeth of time majestatem Seleuci tueri conservare to preserve and defend the Honor and Majesty of Seleucus which was not their Sovereign or Prince but their Friend and Ally Nor any thing to perswade us that our Forefathers were not well advised when in their care to preserve the honor of their King and Country they were troubled and angry in the Reign of King H. 3. that at a publick Feast in Westminster-Hall the Popes Legate was placed at the Kings Table in the place where the King should have sate or when the Baronage or Commonalty of England did in a Parliament holden at Lincoln in the Reign of King Edward the First by their Letters to their then domineering demy-God the Pope who was averse unto it stoutly assert their Kings superiority over the Kingdome of Scotland and refuse that he should send any Commissioners to Rome to debate the matter before the Pope in Judgement which would tend to the disherison of the Crown of England the Kingly Dignity and prejudice of the Liberties Customes and Laws of their Forefathers to the observation and defence of which they were ex debito prestiti juramenti astricti bound by Oath and would not permit tam insolita praejudicialia such unusuall and prejudiciall things to be done against the King or by him if he should consent unto it Or when the Pope intending to cite King Edward the Third to his Court at Rome in Anno 40 of his Reign to do homage to the See of Rome for England and Ireland and to pay him the Tribute granted by King John the whole Estates in Parliament did by common consent declare unto the King that if the Pope should attempt any thing against him by process or other matter the King with all his Subjects should with all their force resist him And in Anno 42 of King Ed. 3. advised him to refuse an offer of peace made unto him by David le Bruse King of Scotland though the Warâ—es and frequent incursions of that Nation were alwayes sufficiently troublesome chargeable so that he might enjoy to him in Fee the whole Realm of Scotland without any subjection and declared that they could not assent unto any such Peace to the disherison of the King and his Crown and the great danger of themselves Or that William Walworth he gallant Mayor of London whose fame for it will live as long as that City shall be extant was to be blamed when he could not endure the insolency of the Rebel Wat Tyler in suffering a Knight whom the King had sent to him to stand bare before him but made his Dagger in the midst of his Rout and Army teach his proud heart better manners Or Richard Earl of Arundelâ—nd â—nd Surrey did more then was necessary when as he perceiving before hand the after accomplished wicked designe and ambition of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and titular King of Leon and Castile did before the downfall of that unhappy Prince King Richard the Second complain in Parliament that he did sometimes go arme in arme with the King and make
THE Mistaken Recompence OR The great Damage and very many Mischiefs and Inconveniences which will inevitably happen to the KING And His PEOPLE By the taking away of the KING'S Praeemption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them By FABIAN PHILIPPS Esquire Sic maesta Senectus Praeteritiquè memor flebat metuensquè futuri Lucan lib. 3 LONDON Printed by R. Hodgkinson for the Author and are to be sold by Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivy-Lane 1664. TO THE Old-fashioned and True-hearted Gentry and others of the English Nation and all who are wel-wishers to the Honour and Happiness of it THe designe of these few sheets of paper in a second Justification of the Antiquity Legality Use Right Reason and Necessity of the Kings Pourveyance or Compositions for them and a Demonstration of the many great Mischiefs and Inconveniences which will unavoydably happen both to the King and his People by the taking of them away which was the endeavours of a larger Treatise is not only to epitomize some part of what is therein already expressed but to add many things which were before omitted to the end that such as being imployed in the publique cares and concernments of the Nation have very little or no spare time at all to converse with books or that those who do preferre the interests of their vanities or avarice before such better company may with no great trouble or labour read that which is more at large to be seen in the former Book but to take off the Opinion and Objections lately made of some who would perswade themselves others that the Compositions for the Kings Prae-emption and Pourveyance either taken for the King or served into his House in kind or money or by allowances for them were when they were paid or served a great burden to the people and none or very little profit to the King by that time that the cozening of so many Officers and Servants in his Household and their appetites of spoyl and rapine by their selling the Kings meat as well cooked and dressed as undressed and of his bread beer and all manner of household provisions to the Inhabitants Housekeepers in the parts adjacent were satisfyed and other their purloyning and trimly varnished over pilfrings and disorders which an unpaid Army and the most unruly Camps of Souldiers or military men are not often guilty of and the tricks and artifices of the Pourveyors and Managers of the houshold provisions which in Queen Elizabeths time made a Kentish Yeoman pleasantly demand of her being in her Progresse when she was pleased to talk a little with him and he perceived she was the Queen If it were she that did eat up all his Poultry which upon her second thoughts and examination and proof made of the knavery of one of her Pourveyors procured him shortly after a legal and wel-deserved hanging That too many of his Majesties Servants employed in the Affairs of his Houshold Provisions are little better then Theeves in an yearly Pay or Pension ravening Tartars or neatly cozening Banyans and that the Jews or the most nimble Cut-purses Jugglers or Hocus-pocusses do not if any thing at all much out-do them But that being said and imagined only and not ever likely to be admitted into the virge of Truth or Evidence will for the most part be proved to be meer suggestions contrived and cast abroad by the insinuations of some who do seek to preserve their own as they deem it happiness and increase of fortunes by the ruine and miseries of multitudes or such as will take up reports as many Gentlemen do Tradesmens deceitfull Wares upon trust and will prove to be no otherwise then as the blind man in the Gospel did in believing men to be walking Trees when that which made them seem to be that which they were not was his own mistakings and by those and other ungrounded scandalls do as much service to the King by it as the devouring Ingrossers do usually do unto the People when they take away the more honest gains of the Retailers to create unto themselves a liberty of imposing what rates they please upon them and may be easily enough convinced by a discreet and juditious examination of particulars hâ—aring of parties accused survey of the excellent Orders and Government of the Royall Houshold which are so exact and limiting every Officer to their Liveryes or stinted proportions as some antient and very able knowing Officers of the Houshold who do well deserve to be believed have averred and will be ready to assert that the Orders of the Kings House are so very watchfull vigilant and preventing of cheaâ—s and cozenings as without aâ— universal combination of all the Servants of the Kings House which is never likely to be accomplished it is impossible that there can be so much as a Loaf or Manchet cozened from the King and the daily care of the Lord Steward White-staved Officers and of the Green-cloth although the yearly Salaries and Pensions be the same for the most part which were in the Reign of King Henry the Seaventh when the Kings provisions were so near the thâ—n cheap Market rates and prices as they had not so much as an aspect of grievance when ten thousand pounds was a good Dowry for the Kings Daughter in marriage with the King of Scotland ten pounds per annum a good Annuity for a Kinsman to an Earle a penny was but reckoned to an Earle of Oxford by his Wardrobe keepers for a pair of Gloves for his own wearing and the value of silver by the ounce was then but little more then half a Crown and but creeping up towards three shillings four pence the ounce and Nicholas West Bishop of Ely in the 23th year of the Reign of King Henâ—y the Eighth keeping yearly one hundred Servants in his house gave the Gentlemen and better sort of them but 53 s. 4 d. and to the inferiour sort but 40 s. per annum and the next year after that the ounce of silver was brought up to 3 s. 4 d. a fat Ox was sold at London for six and twenty shillings Beef and Pork for an half-penny a pound and a half penny farthing a pound for Veal and Mutton was by an Act of Parliament in that year understood to be a reasonable price and with gain enough afforded and due consideration shall be had of the necessary differences which are to be observed betwixt the Pensions allowances and expences of many of the Nobility and Gentry of the best extraction and houses of the Kingdome serving and attending in the Kings House those that stand before Princes and are to be clothed as the holy Book of God hath told us with Silk and soft Raiments and those that are none of these but do serve and take wages in Houses and Families of private men and that the Majesty and Honour of a King in the Order and splendour of his House is not to be reduced to
and truly called plentifull living if Citizens Wives and some of no higher a rank then Scâ—iveners shall have their Trains born up at Funeralls as if they were Countesses or Baronesses and give the world to understand by that Noveâ—int universi that pride hath made them run out of their wits and may in a short time after that rate make their Husbands run out of their Estates And if Taylors Wives may as they are not now ashamed to do wear Pearl Neck-laces of 100 or 120l price and some of the greater sort of that now too overbusied Profession keep their Coaches and make their Customers pay for it A Linnen Draper being to buy an Horse for his own use must have one at no lesse a price then forty pounds the Wife of a Sales-man or one that sells Petticoats Wastcoats or Gowns trimd and made up in a seeming cheap but a most deceitfull manner for Servants or people of ordinary quality can wear a Neck-lace of forty pounds price And some Shoemakers Wives do not think their Husbands do go to the Devil fast enough if they do not so abuse the more honest intentions of their Trade as to make their Wives learn to hold up their heads to shew their Pearl Neck-laces of forty or fifty pounds price which is many times more then all the shoes in some of their Husband Shops are worth Every Cook every Alehousekeeper and the lowest and meanest sort of Mechanicke and Handicrafts men and their Wives shall be permitted to vie in 〈◊〉 Apparel and manner of living with the Nobility and Gentry A Frock-porters little Daughter shall go with her breasts and shoulders naked white shoes Coif and Pinner well laced and all to be ribboned and a Day-labourers Wife in the Country within the infectious breath of the pride of London wear her Taffata Hoods Gold and Silver-lace and a Gorget not much below the yearly rent of the little Tenement her Husband is at night glad to rest his weary and durtied limbs in and that there will be never any hope or possibility of any thinâ— but high rates and prices vices and villanies when thâ—â— do so hugely â—ise and â—ncrease by reason of the pride of the Nation as the Keeper of the Boâ—â—omâ—â—ss pit and its everlasting burnings may well rejoyce in the plentifull coming in of his Harvest and Merchandise and that if there were nothing of wickedness to be found in the heart of mankind that most fertill Seminary and seed-plot of it and no other cause for it the only excessive pride of the Nation would by a necessity of providing maintenance for it be a cause efficient and impulsive to make or foment all manner of wickedness fraud cheating and cozenidg drive the Wives and Husbands to betray one another Servants their Masters Children their Parents Parents their Children and Brothers and Sisters to forego all naturall affection care and honesty one towards another That it is and will be impossible by any Trade or Industry to mainteyn this Nation in either peace or plenty when all the men in it shall in their Apparel Dyet and Expences make it their business to live as the Nobility and Gentry do most of the female Sex Servants not excepted shall not be contented themselves or let their Husbands live in any quiet unless they may live like Ladies and Gentlewomen and be the Daughters of vanity and folly That at Paphus and Ciprus the old and antient Countries of venery as well as vanity where their Daughters do as some Authors have written and Travellers do report entertain strangers by prostitution of their bodies to get Dowries or Portions for some mad Husbands to marry them And in all the Luxuries and pride of Rome Asia Tire and Sidon and all other the destroyed and ruined Nations by it there were some distinctions in Apparel Dyet and Expences some Servants distinguished by their Habit and not all Masters or Mistresses to be found amongst them And that England being overchaged with a Generation of too many Proud Laziâ— and Lavish People is not nor ever will be able to maintain them without a sinfull necessity put upon the Nation as there is too much already to cheat and oppress one another to support them in it And should have more reason to believe then to doubt that the honor of a Prince is the honor of a People and the people so much concerned in it that it was wont to be a cura curarum one of the greatest cares of the Magistrates under Kings and Soveraign Princes seculis retroactis in the old and long ago past ages of the word attested by the hoary heads of time antiquity practised by a Jus Gentium universal Law of Nations rude and untaught Indians not excepted and continued to this day in many forreign parts and most of the Western Nations to give an especiall honor by gifts enterteynments and presents to Embassdours who in those particular employments were but the images and representations of foreign Princes sent on Embasses unto theirs And that we ought to take it to be a duty incumbent upon us not to want or be to seek for as much goodness as the old Heathen Persians were Masters of when Artabanus told Themistocles the Graecian Embassadour that apud nos ea Lex praestantissima quaâ— venerati Regem tanquà m Dei effigiem jubet with us that Law which commandeth reverence to the King as Gods Image is accompted to be the most excellent And therefore untill the wisdome of our Parliaments shall by some sumptuary Laws to be enacted which may as easily be done and put in execution without any damage or loss unto Trade or his Majesties Customes aâ— those that were made and enacted in the Reigns of King Edward the Third Henry the Eighth and Queen Mary unhappily repeald by King James or those not long ago made and kept alive by our Neighbours of France and Spain or lately ordained by the sage Venetians Or by the Swedes those strangers to the Sun and Inmates of Snow and Ice after they were grown rich and proud by the spoil and plunder of the unfortunate Germany and a way may be found out to drive back and reduce unto some Order as formerly the unchristian liberty of pride now in fashion amongst us which is so horrid and ridiculous as might turn the weeping and laughing Philosophers out of their humours and make Heraclitus laugh and Democritus weep together with the daily more and more growing and encreaeasing high rates of victuals and houshold provisions which is and will be the sad consequence of it And is so fixt pertinacious as that the Kings own example of plain and uncostly Apparel the care of the Church and Pulpits the scourging detestation of vice appearing in some of our Plays and Interludes and the jeers and scoffs of some people as they meet with it in the streets have not yet been able to bring or perswade too many of them into their wits
part in the residue he being now enforced to purchase the victuals and food for Himself and his houshold at a far greater rate then any of his Subjects 20000 l. 0 s. 0 d. Besides what may be added for the tricks pilferings of inferiour Servants of the houshold and their taking indirect courses and advantages to make up or recruit their Losses and the damage which the King may susteyn by having such his servants Metamorphosed and turned into hunger-starved Ratts which will be nibling and gnawing at every thing which they can come at and may be catched but are not to be destroyed by drowning or poisoning And the loss and diminution of the Honour of the King in his Royal Houshold which is and ought to be inestimable and as much beyond a valuation As the Honor of a Sovereign Prince is and ought to be above and beyond that of the vulgar or any private person Which may bring us to this conclusion That although Fifty thousand pounds per annum were in the granting of a Moyety of the Excise to the King his Heirs or Successors intended to be allowed for the Pourveyance or Compositions for them which did cost the Kingdome yearly and Communibus Annis but Twenty five thousand and twelve pounds or thereabout in the 35 year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and in the third year of the Reign of King James not much above Forty thousand pounds per annum and in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr at the most but fifty thousand pounds per annum 〈◊〉 whether more or less is not to be found in the Receipt or yearly Income of that Revenue of the moyty of the Excise For that the totall of the clear yearly profit of the moyety of the Excise allowed unto the King for the Exchange of his Tenures in Capite and by Knights service and the Pourveyance or Compositions for them doth not amount unto the charges of the Collection deducted above One hundred and twenty thousand pounds per annum Is likely to be lesse by reason of an universall poverty of those which should pay it making a large accompt of many desperate Arrears and of the Farmers in many places letting it three or four times over to others under them and so very much racking and oppressing of the people if but half of what is complained of be true as many private Families do to avoid the gripes of the Excise-men and the knavery of the Common Brewers set up Brewhouses for their own occasions And will be too little for the exchange or purchase only of such a principall flower and support of the Crown and an eminent part of the Royall Prerogative as the Tenures in Capite and Knight-service are which in yearly revenue yielded him above One hundred thousand pounds per annum And for that the Power Might and Majesty of a King being unvaluable is not to be ballanced by any thing which is not as much So as the damages and losses susteyned by the want of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them besides what shall be paid more then formerly for the charges of the Stable impressing of Workmen for the Kings occasions by the Master◠of the Works the King now paying every Workman eighteen pence or two shillings per diem when it was before but twelve pence and the charges more then formerly in the Pourveyance for the Navy Ship-Timber Ammunition and carriage thereof c. and many other losses not here enumerated will be no less then the sum of One hundred seven thousand and fifteen pounds five shillings And a too certain Totall of that which is here valued and brought to accompt besides the unvaluable honour and power of the King loss and ruine of his Servants and what indirect courses may intice them unto Which needs not be doubted when as by an exact and carefull accompt given unto the Lords in Parliament in or about the third year of the Reign of King James by Sir Robert Banister Knight then one of the Officers of his Houshold of what was yearly saved to the King by the Compositions for the Pourveyance over and above the yearly value of what it cost the Countries when the rates were both in the Country and City of London not by a third part and in many things a half and more so much heightned as now they are and a project of purchasing the Pourveyance from the Crown for Fifty thousand pounds per annum was in agitation there appeared to have been yearly saved by the Compositions and Commissions for Pourveyance the sum of Thirty four thousand eight hundred forty six pounds ten shillings and six pence and in the Office for the Stable Two thousand six hundred ninety and eight pounds which made a Totall of Thirty seven thousand five hundred forty and four pounds ten shillings and six pence and probably might be the reason that that unhappily after accomplished designe did then vanish into nothing 1. Nor will the yearly damage losses of the people in the totall arrive unto a lesse when they shall finde the moyety of the Excise not amounting to One hundred and thirty thousand pounds per annum in the utmost extent and income of it without deductions or defalcations to the Officers imployed by his Majesty therein to be doubled and made as much again upon them by the fraud and oppression of the Brewers little malt put into their Beer and ill boyling of it and lesser measures sold by the Inkeepers and Alehouse-keepers And yet the Brewers being paid the Excise of Beer and Ale by the housekeepers and Retailers as much as they do pay to the King and a great deal more by reason of the Excise of three Barrels of Beer and two of Ale in every twenty allowed them will not think it enough to cozen and abuse the people whose good and evil and profit and loss is included in that of the Kings unless they do also by false Gaugings concealed Brewings and other ill Artifices use all the wayes and means which they can to make themselves great gainers by deceiving the King as well as the people and will like too many of their fellow Citizens the great Tax-Improvers and Advantage-catchers of the Kingdom be sure to be as little loosers by it as the Fox would if a monthly Assessement should be set upon him for his subterranean Boroughes and dark Labirinths or the griping Usurer the biting Broker and the knavish Informer would be if an yearly Imposition or Tax should be layd upon their ungodly and oppressive gains and Imployments 2. Neither will the peoples loss damage be lessened when there shall be a scarcity of Food Provisions at the Markets in regard that the Kings Officers and Pourveyors for his Houshold shall now be constrained to buy his Houshold provisions in great quantities at the Markets or Shops in London or in the Counties adjacent which were wont to be served in kind by the several Counties
Westminster and within ten miles distance thereof unto six pence for a day and night for Hey for a horse now â—â—shamefully and unconscionably raised by themselves unto eight pence and six pence for a peck of Oats not measured by Winchester measure but the knavish peck of the Ostlers to whom the dying horses might well bequeath their Halters at the rate of eight groats a bushell when they have many times bought them in the Market at Twelve pence a bushell or less And directed that that Ordinance should continue in the County of Middlesex untill it should appear unto the Justices of the Kings Bench and in other Counties and Places to the Justices of Peace that because of the increase of prices in the parts adjoyning greater rates should be necessary to be permitted and that thereupon other rates should from time to time be set and being set were commanded and enjoyned to be strictly and duly observed untill they by the like authority should be altered And might be as little troubled at his Pourveyance as they were with his Royal Fathers remission or not putting in execution the Assise in imitation of one which was made in anno 12 H. 7. made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth by the advice of the Lord Burghley and other of the Lords of her Privy Counsell of Flesh Fish Poultry butter and most sorts of Victuals and houshold Provisions as also of Hey and Provender and another likewise set and made by the Judges of the Kings Bench in or about the first year of his Reign by the advice of all the other Judges of England at the instance of Mr Noy his Atturney-Generall Which might perswade us to be something kind to our selves and our posterity in being kinder unto him for that the losses and damage to the King and his People without the addition of their losses by the taking away of the Tenures in Capite are and will be so very great and evident and the loss of the King may by a necessity of their supplying of it be in the end a means of doubling or trebling the losses of the people and should therefore deterre us from any endeavours to eclipse our Sun and bereave our selves of the light and comfort of it and diswade us from the purchase of so many mischiefs and inconveniences as have already happened and are like to multiply upon us by making our selves the most unhappy Instruments of the dishonour of our King and Country in the diminution of the accustomed grandeur and magnificence of his Court and Hospitality wherein plenty and frugality largess and providence satiety and sobriety honour and hospitality were so excellently and rationally combined and confederated as the best of Oeconomies and the greatest vigilance daily care and inspection in the most methodicall and best ordered House and Family of England or any other the Kings Dominions consisting of 10 or 20 persons or a lesser number a few being commonly the easiest governed could never arrive unto 〈◊〉 â—erfection of government and good order of the Kings Houshold consisting of a numerous Retinue of above One thousand or twelve hundred persons and many of them of the best extraction and noblest houses of the Kingdom where besides the charge of his most pious and devout yearly Maundy or washing as many poor mens feet every year upon the Thursday before Easter as he is years old giving unto each of them a Jowl of Salmon a Poll of Ling 30 red Herrings and as many white 4 six peny loavs of bread Cloth for a Gown and a Shirt a pair of new Shoes Stockings a single penny and a 20 shillings piece of Gold Two pence a piece was given to poor people every day at the Gate besides the Kings Alms-dish every meal from of his Table and the fragments carefully gathered up from the many Tables of his Servants put into an Aâ—mes-basket and daily distributed unto them by two Officers yearly kept in pay and pension for that purpose Six Mess of Meat 240 Gallons of Beer and as many of loaves of Bread with a liberal proportion of Sack and Claret as wast and entertainment for all comers for the Kings honour where were great yearly Festivals the Lord Stewards Table completely and more then ordinarily furnished during all the time of the sitting of the Parliaments to entertain such of the Lords and Commons as would come thither to dinner and where when the Nobility and Persons of quality in the absence of Parliaments came either to attend the King or petition him in any of their Affaires they were made the Guests at some of the Tables of his great Officers as well as those of meaner ranks were at the Table of the lesser And the Chambers and Galleries searched for 〈◊〉 strangers and fit persons as might deserve to be inviâ—ed to the Tables and Diet of his Servants to the end that any that were fitting to partake of his hospitality might not be omitted Embassadors which came sometimes two at once from severall forreign Princes found themselves royally enterteyned for certain days out of the diet and provision of the Kings house and nothing of State or Provision wanting at the same time in the Kings own Court or House and attended with as great or more plenty solemnity then many of their Kings Princes had at home where no Country Gentleman or Yeoman which had contributed to the Pourveyance but at one time of the year or other had upon all occasions of business at the Court either with the King or his Servants a large part or share of what he had contributed And was so gratefully and well accepted as some have anciently when gratitude and thankfull respects were more in fashion than now they are so highly esteemed the respects and favours of the Kings Servants and Officers when they had occasion of business to his Court as Robert de Arsic a man of great note and eminency in the County of Oxford did give Lands in Newton by a Fine levyed thereof unto one Robert Purcell and his Heirs who was then one of the Porters at the Gate of the Kings House or Court by inheritance upon condition that whensoever he and his Heirs should come unto the Court the said Robert Purcell and his Heirs whilst they should be the Kings Porters should attend their coming come out of the gate to meet them and walk before them with his rod or staffe unto the Kings Hall and at their return or going out of the gate call for their horse or Palfrey and hold their stirrup whilst they got up or mounted and if the said Robert Arsic or his Heirs should send any Messenger to the Court should as much as in them lay and according to their ability with their good word and well wishes faithfully assist him And was so unwilling to loose that Service or Duty as upon the refusall or omission thereof by the said Robert Purcell he did in the 11 th year of
troublesome to give a Guard of 4000 Archers of Cheshire with their Bows bent and their Arrows hocked ready to shoot Bouche of Court to wit meat and drink and wages of six pence a day then accompted a very great pay Or that King Henry the 7 th then whom the Kingdom of England never had a more thrifty Prince did the morrow after Twefthtyde in a great Solemnity keep a Feast in Westminster Hall where he being set at a Table of Stone which remained untill the middle of our late Rebellion accompanyed with the Queen and many Embassadours and other Estates 60 Knights and Esquires served 60 Dishes to the Kings Mess and as many to the Queens and served the Lord Mayor of London at a Table where he was set with 24 dishes of meat to his Mess. And our succeeding Kings understood to be so much for the good and welfare of the people as King Edward the Sixth that great Blossome of prudence and piety and all manner of Princely virtues when a surfeit of Church Lands and Revenues had like the coal carried into the Eagles nest reduced the Royall Revenues into a consumptive and languishing condition had by the advice of his Privy Council suppressed but with no advantage to the Revenue or curing the diseases of it as it then and hath since happened in many of those pretended rather then really effected dishonorable Espargnes witness the putting down of fourteen Tables at once by King Charles the Martyr which gained in one year Thirty thousand pounds to some few of his Officers who did advise him to do it but nothing at all for himself the Tables formerly appointed for young Lords the Masters of Requests and Serjeants at Armes c. he did not howsoever think fit to diminish or lessen any more of the Royall Hospitality And King James when he had by an over-great bounty to his Countrymen the Craving Scots and their restless importunities brought himself and Revenue into many streights and was contented to seek out wayes of sparing did in the inquest and seeking to abate the charge of his housekeeping in his Letters to the Lords of the Councel bearing date in November 1617. and pressing earnestly to have it done to the end that he might equall his charges to his Revenue direct them to abate superfluities in all things and multitudes of unnecessary Officers and to do things so as they might agree with his honor but concluded that there were twenty wayes of abatement besides the House if they be well looked into Which may give us a Prospect which a larger Treatise of the Antiquitie legality reason duty and necessity of Prae-emption and Pourveyance for the King or Compositions for his Pourveyance as they were used and taken for the provision of the Kings Houshold the small charges and burden thereof to the People and many great mischiefs and inconveniences which will inevitably follow the taking of them away will more fully evidence how great a damage the King susteyneth by the want of them How unbecoming the Majesty and Honor of a King and his many Princely affairs and occasions it will be that the people should deny him that granted or continueth their Profits in Fairs and Markets the benefit of Prae-emption which all Princes as well Christian as Heathen do enjoy and is but conformable to the Tenor and meaning of the Fifth Commandement in the Decalogue and the Honour due unto common Parents and Magistrates enjoyned thereby How unsafe to the peoples consciences when they do by their Oathes of Allegeance and Supremacy swear to maintain and defend his Regall Rights and Jurisdictions not to allow his Prae-emption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forecheapum and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Saxon Times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying ante 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prendere which is Prae-emption and was then as it hath been ever since so just and legall a part of the Kings Prerogative as King Ina who reigned here in the year 720. did by a Law prohibit that Fore fang or Captio obsoniorum in foris aut nundinis non ab aliquo fit priusquam minister Regis ea ceperit quae Regi fuerint necessaria the taking or buying of Houshold provisions by others in Fairs or Markets before the Kings Minister or Pourveyor should take those things which were necessary for the King And was not then any Novel constitution or acquired Right or Praerogative or without a Divine pattern but so inhaerent in Monarchy and Kingly Government and so becoming the duty and gratitude of Subjects as we may find the Vestigia or Tracs of it in the morning of the restored not long before drowned and washt world when Joseph that great and happy Minister of State under Pharaoh King of Egypt did by the help of that Royal Right of Praeemption keep the Lean Kine from eating up the Fat and save that Kingdome and many other neighbouring Nations from an irresistible famine and ruine And how contrary it will be unto the duty of Subjects to refuse him their Carts to convey his Carriages unless they may have two parts in three more then formerly when the Earl of Rutland and Countess Dowager of Pembroke and many other of the Nobility have not only their Pourveyances but can have their Tenants Boon Carts upon any of their occasions for nothing and every Lord of a Manor or Parson of a Parish do seldom fail of as much or greater curtesies or respects from their Tenants or Parishioners or that the Kings Harbingers should from some of the Tribe of Naball receive uncivill and churlish answers that they are not to loose the advantage of six pence more which may be given by any other or that his Pourveyors should not have the benefit of Praeemption as one of them lately was refused in the buying of a Salmon or be wrangled with and have Fowl taken out of their hands as one lately did and when he was told it was for the King could say he cared not a turd for him or that his Officers should be exposed to the humours or incivilities of Clowns Quakers or disaffected persons And that strangers who have commonly and usually seen forreign Princes travailing in any parts of Christendome out of their own Territories and Jurisdictions to be by a generall and never intermitted custome honourably and respectfully received in all Cities and Places of note and presented with Wine Fish and other provisions such as the place and season of the year afforded which even those Commonwealths States and Places of incivility Trade and selfishness such as Holland and Hamborough do never omit should see the King of Englands Servants and Officers so little respected in their attendance upon him in his Journeys or Progresses as not to be trusted with a small hire of a Cart unless like some beggars in the streets buying an halfpenny or a farthing worth of pottage at a Cooks Shop they do first
lay down or pay their money for it And how ungrateful it will be if they were not Subjects or obliged by the Laws of God Nature and Nations to an obedience reverence retributions and oblations to their Prince to receive a daily and an hourly protection and as many benefits and blessings as their almost alwayes craving necessities and importunities can get or obtain or his munificent and ready heart and hand impart and bestow upon them And yet be so barren in their retorns or thankfulness as when there is not a Family or Kinred in England but hath at one time or other been raised or enriched by the King or his Royall Progenitors or tasted of their favours or mercies and that those who did eat and partake of his Pourveyance or Compositions for them and were maintained by them were for the most part their Sons and Daughters or some of their Kinred or Generations to deny him that which was such an antient and unquestionable Right as all the Judges of England did no longer agoe then the third year of the Reign of King James declare it to be a Prerogative of the King at the Common Law and was no less in the Times of our Saxon and British Monarchs and so much in use in the Kingdom of Ireland as it doth yet retain the custome of Pourveyance ad alendum Proregis Familiam for the maintenance of the Lord Lieutenants House and Family as an antiquitus institutum an antient Constitution Jus quoddam Majestatis a part of the Right belonging unto the Sovereign Prince and his Preheminence or Kingly Prerogative And in their Act of Parliament lately made for the Settlement of that tossed and turmoild Kingdom consented that the Lord Chief-Justice of his Majesties Court of King-Bench the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the Master of the Rolls or any other of his Majesties Officers of that Kingdom for the time being shall and may have and receive such Port-Corn of the Rectories Impropriations or appropriate Tithes forfeited unto or vested in his Majesty his Heirs and Successors which have been formerly paid or reserved The furnishing of Carriages and Ships for publick uses are in Scotland justly numbred amongst those Regalities which are annexed to the Crown and was by the consent of the Estates there so called allowed to conserve the dignity of that Kingdome the Borrough Mealis where quilibet Burgensis debet domino Regi pro Burgagio quinque denarios annuatìm dicuntur incorporari annexique Fisco Patrimonio Regis every Burgess is to pay five pence per annum for his Mealis which Sir Henry Spelman interprets to be a Farme appropriated to buy Provisions in Regiae mensae apparatum for the Kings Table or Houshold and are said to be incorporate and annexed to the Patrimony of the King and his Exchequer And the right of Pourveyance so little there esteemed to be a grievance as in a Parliament of their King James the 4 th holden in the year 1489. The Lords Spirituall and Temporall and other his Lieges did declare that it was the Kings property for the honourable sustentation of his house according to his Estait and Honour quhilk may not be failized without great derogation of his noble Estait and that his true Lieges suld above all singular and particular profit desire to preserve the noble Estait of his Excellence like as it was in the time of his maist noble Progenitors of gud mynd And is conform unto that rule of reason which other Nations doe measure their Actions by for in France as Renatus Choppinus a learned French Advocat saith it is Dominicum jus primitus sceptris addictum in necessarios Regiae mensae Aulaeque sumptus honorificum ad suum Imperii inclitae decus Majestatis conservandum a part of the Demeasnes belonging and annexed to the Royall Scepter and appropriate to the necessary uses and provisions of the Kings Court and Houshold for the honor and conservation of the Rights of Majesty Our long agoe old and worthy Ancestors the stout hearted Germans did as Tacitus sua sponte ex more viritìm conferre principibus armenta vel fruges quae pro honore accepta necessitatibus subvenirent man by man of their own accord customarily bring or send unto their Princes Herds of Cattle and some of the fruits of the earth as Presents and Oblations which being taken for an Honour due unto them did much conduce unto the defraying of their charges or necessityes the people of Italy and the Princes and Nobility thereof did acknowledge them to be inter Regalia amongst the Regalities of the Emperour and the Law of the Empire formerly of Rome now of Germany doth strongly assert the Praestationes Angariarum Plaustrorum Navium c. Pourveyance of Cart-taking and impresting of Ships Regi competere ratione excellentâ—ae ejus dignitatis quae Regalia dicuntur to belong unto the King by reason of the excellency of his dignity Et multa adjumentaei necessaria ut dominium intus externè tueri valeat and that many ayds and helps are necessary for a Prince to defend his Dominions at home as well as abroad And is as much a Custome of Nations as covering of the head washing the hands wearing of shoes and retiring to rest or sleep in the night so usual as the Barbarians some of whom have not so much good nature as to diswade them from selling their Children like Calves or Cattle at a Market or the savage part of the Heathen who have not attained to so much of reason as to perswade them the use of clothes and apparrel are glad their Kings and Princes will accept of And the Inhabitants of that large Empire of Japan who in many of their Nationall Customes and Actions do delight to be contrary to the people of Europe and most other Nations as to have their Teeth black when others doe desire to have them white doe mount their horses on the right side and not uncover their heads in saluting each other but only unty some part of their Shoes and Sandals and sit down when others do come to salute them are notwithstanding unwilling to come behind other Nations in the Duty of Pourveyance and Honour of their Prince Practised allowed by many approved examples in the sacred Volumes where Melchizedeck King of Salem the Priest of the most high God brought forth bread and wine to Abraham and his houshold Servants in their little Army upon their return from the rescue of the righteous Lot which was saith the great Grotius a Custome then in use amongst the neighbour Nations that of Jesse the Father of David who being commanded by Saul his King when he was not in the Army but enjoyed the blessings of peace to send David his Son unto him laded an Asse with bread and a bottle of wine and a Kid and sent
to reckon it to his Landlord and demand an allowance for it The Counties and Places which did pay most towards the furnishing of the Kings Household provisions being those which abound most with them and were the greatest gainers by their neighbourhood to the constant residence of the King and his Courts of Justice And those which were more remote had but little charged upon them as all the 13 Shires of Wales but three hundred sixty pounds per annum Herefordshire One hundred eighty pounds per annum and that large County of York as big as three others but four hundred ninty five pounds per annum And may tell us how irrationall and uneven it will be for the people of England to rank with or above the care of their souls and Religion their endeavours to preserve their Liberties Customes and Privileges some of which are hard and severe enough as the forfeiture of the Widows Estates for life in their deceased Husbands Copyhold Estates of Inheritance for marrying a second Husband unless they shall come into the Court Baron of the Lord of the Manor riding upon a Black Ram and acknowledge such a fault committed or the custome of the Manor of Balshale in the County of Warwick where the Lord of the Manor was to divide the Goods and personall Estate of the deceased with his Wife and Children the custome of the Manor of Brails in the same County not to marry their Daughters or to make their Sons Priests without licence of the Lord of the Manor or of the Manor of Brede in the County of Sussex where the Widows are not to be endowed or have dower of any of the Lands of their first Husband if they shall marry again The custome of some Manors that the Copiholder shall not sell his Lands unto a Stranger untill he shall have first offered it unto the next of Kin or Neighbour ab oriente solis dwelling on the East side of him who giving as much as others would do for it are to have it or where the Copiholder is to give his Lord a certain summe of money towards his charges in the time of Warre or to forfeit his land if summoned unto the Lords Court doth wilfully make default or that the Lord or Lady of the Manor of Coveny in the County of Cambridge should have for every Fornication or Adultery committed in the Manor a Lecherwyte or penalty of 5 s. and 2 d. for selling a Hog without licence of the Lord of that Manor and five shillings for a Licence for any one of the Tenants Daughters to be married And yet do all they can to infringe and abolish those iust ancient and legall Rights and Privileges of the Kings which should protect and defend them and theirs and being rationabilia legitimè praescripta most reasonably and lawfully prescribed ought to be inviolabilia quia nec divino juri nec legibus naturae Gentium sive municipalibus contradicunt inviolable when they contradict not the Laws of God Nature and Nations and the Laws of the Land as if all that is to be found in our Laws and reasonable Customes should be only to protect the peoples Rights and Liberties and the inferiour Members of the Body Politique and to diminish and abrogate that of the Kings the superiour more noble and therefore the more to be respected or as if the power of a Prince should be the better when it is weakest a blind or decrepit pennyless Captain or Generall more usefull for their Warres then a Sampson a David or a Solomon as full of Riches as Wâ—sdome and a Wooden Sword more for that purpose then one of Iron and Steel or that of Goliah How unjust as well as unreasonable it would be for the People of England to rack and raise the Rents and rates of their Lands and Commodities increase their own Revenues and prices of victuals and houshold provisions five or six to one more then it was when the Compositions for the Pourveyance was agreed upon in the third or fourth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and lay the burden thereof only upon the King make him to be as an Amorite or Stranger in our Israel and his own dominions paying an enhaunced and oppressing Rate and Interest for food and provisions for himself and his houshold and to receive his rents and other monies due unto him after the old rate and buy at the new take little more then four pence instead of a shilling in every summe which is paid him and pay twelve pence for every groats worth which he hath occasion to buy and drive or inforce him by buying all by the penny and being left to the mercy of the Sellers to such a prejudiciall necessity or custome as would certainly undoe and ruine all the Nobility Gentry Clergy Tradesmen Mechanicks and People of England if they should but imitate him And would without the help of our Sâ—â—taries or Levellers have ere now destroyed and ruined the two famous Universities of Oxford and Cambridge those great Lights and Fountains of Learning in our Nation and have brought their Towring Colledges Halls and glorious Buildings into their Rubbidge or little more then a story to talk of as Travellers sometimes do of the heretofore University or Publique School of Stamford if the Act of Parliament in 18 Eliz had not better provided for them and ordained that a third part of the rents of the Lands belonging unto them should be for ever reserved and paid in Corn Malt and other Provisions at their election Or now to deny it him when as if he or his Father or Royall Progenitors could have foreseen any dislike or complaining of such an ancient and unquestionable Right of the Crown he or they might by a restraint of their Bounties and Indulgencies have made themselves not only savers but gainers by it or reserved more then that in their multituds of Grants and Fee-Farme Rents And did never as Cromwell that dissembling and devouring Hiena or Wolfe of the Evening dig or teare up by the roots as many of our Laws and Liberties as he could upon a pretence of defending and protecting them call our Magna Charta in the worst Latin that ever Brewer or Englishman spake Magna Fartae imprison the Lawyers that pleaded for the Peoples liberties and was so little sensible of their being tired or impoverished with Taxes as he could when he was lieutenant Generall of the Army of Reforming Harpies give some Gentlemen of the County of Bedford who complained of their heavy burdens and the poverty of that County no better an answer or ease then that he would never believe they were unable to pay Taxes as long as they could whistle when they did drive their Plows and Carts Nor did after the horrid Murder of his Father and his own Exile and sufferings by an almost twenty years Rebellion of the greatest part of his Subjects grown rich with the plunder and spoyl of
Sacrorum is Baldus and Individua as Cynus termeth them which Jurisconsultorum communi quodam decreto by an uncontraverted opinion of all Lawyers nec cedi nec distrahi nec ulla ratione ababienari a summo principe posse cannot as Bodni saith be granted away or released noâ— by any manner of way alienated or withholden from the Sovereign Prince nec ulla quidem temporis diuturnitate praescribi posse nor by any length of time prescribed against him and are therefore by Besoldus cal-called Imperii Majestatis Jura bona regno conjuncta incorporata seu corona unit a quae princeps alienari nequit the Rights of Empire and Majesty and the goods and part of the Crown so incorporate and united unto it as the Prince cannot alien them which to attempt would not be much different from the endeavours to restrain a Prince by a Law not to receive or demand any Subsidies Oblations Civilities or Respects from his People which like a Law against the Word of God or contra bonos more 's would by the opinion of our no less Judicious and Learned Hobart Bacon and Hutton be voyd and of none effect for the Presents and good will of Inferiours unto their Superiours not bribes to corrupt Justice either for favours done or to be done is one of the antient and most noble Customes which mankind hath ever practised and began so with the beginning or youth of the world as we find the Patriarch Jacob sending with his Sons to his then unknown Son Joseph besides the mony which he gave them to buy corn in Egypt a Present of the best fruits of the Country a little Balm and a little Honey Spices and Myrrhe Nuts and Almonds Saul when he thought not of ever being a King whilst he was busied in the enquiring for his Fathers Asses did not think fit to goe unto Samuel the man of God who was then accompted honourable unless he had a Present to bring him Most of the People of the East brought Presents unto their Kings as was seen in the splendour and greatness of Solomon and sine quibus as Grotius saith Reges non adire solebant did not without presents come a near their Kings and was a Custome long after not forgotten by the Kings or Wisemen coming out of the East to worship adore our blessed Saviour at his Birth The Persians in their Kings Progresses did munera offerre neque vilia vel exilia neque nimis praetiosa magnifica bring him Presents neither precious nor contemptible from which etiam Agricolae opifices Workmen and Plowmen were not freed in bringing Wine Oxen Sheep Fruits and Cheeses and the first Fruits of what the earth brought forth quae non tributi sed doni loco censebantur which were not received or given as Tributes but as Oblations and Free gifts which made the poor Persian Synetas when he met with Artaxerxes and his Trayn in the way of his Progress rather then fail of something to offer hasten to the River and bring as much water as he could in his hands and with a chearfull countenance wishes and prayers for the health of the King present it unto him Nor was not so altogether appropriate unto those Eastern Countries where God spake first unto his People and the Sun of his Righteousness did arise but was long agoe practised in England where the custome was as Gervasius Tilburiâ—nsis who wrote in the Reign of Henry the Second and lived in the Reign of King Henry the First informs us upon all Addresses to the King quaâ—dam in rem quaâ—dam in spem offerre to present the King with some or other Presents either upon the granting of any thing or the hopes which they had that he would do it afterwards And so usually as there were Oblata Rolls or Memorialls kept of it in the Reign of King John and some other the succeeding Kings and the Queens or their Royall Consorts seldome escaped the tender of those gratitudes of Aurum Reginae Money or Gold presented unto them as well as unto their Kings and was a Custome not infrequent in the Saxon times as appeareth by our Doomsday Book the most exact and generall Survey of all the Kingdome and so little afterwards neglected as it was paid upon every Pardon of Life or Member and so carefully collected as it was long after in the Reign of King Henry the Third by an Inquisition taken after the death of Gilbert de Sandford who was by Inheritance Chamberlain to the Queens of England found that he had amongst many other Fees and Profits due unto him and his Heirs by reason of that office six pence per diem allowed for a Clark in the Court of Exchequer to collect and gather the Oblation or Duty Neither can there be any reason given why the Clergie for whom God the ratio rationum incomprehensible wisedome and greatest perfection ordained so great a Pourveyance for them in their Tythes and Oblations should enjoy it and his Vice-gerent and Protector of them be without it the Nobility and many of the Gentry and Laity not want it either in kind or some other satisfaction for it and all Cities Corporations Guilds and Societies furnish out their grandeur and greatness derived only by reflection from that of the Kings and he only be deprived of that which should maintain his hospitality and was so usefull to all other Kingâ— and Princes for the gaining of the affections of the People Et a concilier as Lâ—iâ— de Orleans saith L' amour de 〈◊〉 subjectâ— quil◠〈◊〉 par le bouche d' leurs le peâ—ple au 〈◊〉 les pâ—â—ds a lateste pour affirmir le corps politique et le lâ—er par une gracâ—â—use voire necessaire correspondence and to procure the love of the people who are taken by the mouth and to fasten them unto the King and the Feet unto the Head strengthen the Body Politique and unite all the parts thereof by a loving and necessary complyance when he doth at the same time yearly pay and allow some thousands of pounds for the support and Pourveyance of his Councel in the Marches of Wales and his Judges and Justices of the Peace and other Officers in the Kingdom for the administration of Justice Or for us to think that when God in his Government of his chosen people of Israel in that his most righteous Theodratie did command them not to delay the offerings of the First of their Ripe Fruitâ— and of their Liquors and of their Oxen and their Sheep and ordained that if a Sheaf were forgotten in the time of Harvest they were not to goe again to fetch it and when they did beat their Olive trees they should not go â—ver it again and gathered their grapes they should not gleâ—n them for they should be for the â—tranger the Fâ—therless and the Widow he would now be well pleased with such an
unworthy sparing and avarice of Subjects in withholding their Oblations from his Deputies and disabling them from relieving the Strangers the Fatherless and the Widows And that the rates of his houshold provisions being much the same or very near unto those which were agreed upon by the Justices of Peace of every County who cannot be understood to be any Strangers to the rates and Market prices of every County might not be now as cheap afforded as they were then or when they were cheaper in the â—3 year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth now not much above 130 years agoe when 24 great Bâ—eves were provided for a great and pompous Serjeants Feast at Ely house in London where the King Queen and many of the Nobility the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London were present such provisions being then probably at a greater price then ordinary for 26 s. 8 d. a piece from the Shambles a Carcase of an Oxe at 24 aâ—â— s. 10 d. a piece one and fifty great Veals at 4 s. 8 d. a piece four and thirty Porks at 3 s 8 d. a piece ninety one Pigs at 6 d. a piece Capons ten dozen at 20 d. a piece Kentish Capons nine dozen and a half at 12 d. a piece Capons course nineteen dozen 6 d. a piece Cocks of gross seaven dozen nine at 8 d. a piece Cocks course fourteen dozen and eight at 3 d. a piece Pullets the best at 2 d. ob a piece other Pullets 2 d. Pigeons thirty seaven dozen at 10 d. a dozen and Larks three hundred and forty dozen at 5 d a dozen if the Magistrates of England who are trusted by the Law with the Assiâ—e and correction of the rates and prices of victuals and houshold provisions and the punishment of Ingrossers Forestallers and Regrators did not sleep over their duty or too many of the Justices of Peace and Lords of Leets did not finde it to be more for their own advantages to improve and raise their Lands to the highest rack rather then reduce those now exorbitant rates and prices into that order which the Laws and Statutes of England do intend they should be There being no just cause to complain of our payments to the King for his Pourveyance or any other of his necessary affairs when the cry and daily complaints of our want of money is not so much by reason of our want of Trade as our want of wit by mispending that which should regularly and orderly maintain us and our Families and it is not our want of Trade but our too much trading in pride excess and superfluities which hath brought the Nation into that Hectique Feaver and almost incurable Consumption which hath now seised upon the vitalls of it and would be very evident if a strict accompt and view were taken of what hath been needlesly and vitiously spent within these last twenty or thirty years more then formerly in Apparrel Diet Wine Tobacco Jewels Coaches new Fashions greater Portions given with Daughters then our Forefathers could either have given or thought fitting increase of Servants Artificers and Labourers wages gaming by women as well as men great interest and Brocage paid for money and buying upon Trust to support their vanities and twenty millions sterling lately spent in the enterteynment of the Devil and a most horrid Rebellion and seeking for a Liberty to loose all our own Liberties and may give us to understand that if we had that money again which was so foolishly mispended those that could then lay it out and now want it might subscribe unto this undenyable truth that there would be greater riches and less necessities seen in England then in any other Nation and enough and more then enough to drive the Trade thereof and that whilst the back and belly have vyed who should be most inordinate and profuse the improvement of Rents Wages and Commoditâ—â—s have been to no better a purpose then to improve our vices and the Nationaâ—l as well as particular miseries and damage which are and will be the never â—aâ—ling concomitants and consequents of it For no reason can be given why we should not as chearfully submit to any thing that tends to the support of the King and the Honour 〈…〉 Nation as every Citizen of London and man of Trade will do to the furnishing of Pageants or publick 〈◊〉 for the honor and Reputation of their City or Company or as the Universities sometime do in an Entertainment of the King or their Chancellour though they did at the same time contribute to the Pourveyance or as the People of England did in the 5 th year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th when the Queen Regent of Scotlandâ—n â—n her return out of France thither desiring to take her Journy through England was by the City of London presented at her fiâ—st coming with Muttons Beefe Veals Poultry Wine and all other sorts of Provisions necessary for the Entertainment of her and her no small Train even to Bread and Fâ—well and when she departed to goe for Scotland was after great and Princely Entertainments by the King at Whitchall conducted by the Sheriffs of London to whose care the King had committed it as farre as Waltham and by all the Sheriffs of all the Counties through which she passed untill she came unto the Borders of Scotland her Enterteynment being provided by the Kings appointment at the charge of the Counties Nor can it be for the honour of the English Nation to come behind the Jews that stiffe necked and Rebellious Race of Mankind in their kindness and returns unto their Kings and Princes who notwithstanding that pedagoguy and hard hand of Government which the Almighty in his eternall Wisdome found necessary to put upon them in their releasing of Servants and letting their Lands lye untilled every seaventh year permitting their Debtors and Mortgagors or Venâ—ors in every Jubile or 50 year to enjoy their Lands and Estates and to be at liberty their many and many times Free-will and Thanksgiving Offerings Peace-Offerings Sin-Offerings costly Sacrifices Feasts unto the Lord and Journeys to Jerusalem the Offerings which were brought and prepared for the building of the Tabernacle in such aboundance a readiness and zeal not now to be found amongst us as formerly in the building of Churches or repair of the Cathedral of St. Paul as God directed Moses by a Proclamation to restrain them from bringing any more and their Males appearing three times in every year before the Lord not empty handed and their very large Offerings also at the Dedication of the Temple when Solomon their King invited them unto it and their Corban or money often given to the Treasury of it could not forget their respects and duty to their Kings in their Presents or Pourveyance for them and their Houshold When God would not suffer the Majesty of Kings shining as the beams reflections of his divine Majesty upon the face of Moses
and necessity that they dined with Duke Humphrey upon a Traditional mistake that the Monument of Humphrey Duke of Glocester was in the middle Isle of St. Pauls Church in London when it appears by the Armes engraven therein to be a Beuchamp Earl of Warwick And that the King of England Scotland France and Ireland should be necessitated to make a small Room in White hall a place to eat his meat in and be contented with ten dishes of meat for the first and second Courses for him and his Royall Consort at Dinner when most of the Nobility have as much or more and the richest part of the Gentry and most of the rich Merchants and Tradesmen of London do not think such a proportion in their ordinary way of Diet to be more then sufficient And might remember that the Royall Pourveyance is and hath been as well due to a Prince in his Palace as in the Field or his Tents and more deserved by a Prince in the time of Peace and protecting us in the blessings enjoyed by it then it is or can be in the time of Warre when every man is willing enough to offer it to a marching Army that doth but hope and endeavour to defend them And that God was so displeased with the refusers of it as he resolved that an Ammonite or Moabite should never enter into his holy and blessed Congregation because they met not the children of Israel with bread and water in the way when they came forth out of Egypt That it was reckoned as a crime upon the People of Israel that they shewed not kindness to the house of Zerubbaal namely Gideon according to all the goodness which he shewed unto Israel That it was not only Solomons stately Throne of Ivory over-laid with the best Gold adorned with the Images of golden Lions that supported it nor the Forty thousand stalles of horses for his Chariots and twelve thousand Horsemen and the Tributes and Presents sent from many of the Nations round about him but his Royall Pourveyance and Provision for his Houshold the meat of his Table sitting of his Servants the manner of their sitting at meat and the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel which among many other necessary Circumstances of State and Emanations of Power and Majesty joyned with the other parts of his Regall Magnificence raised the wonder in the Queen of Sheba and took away her spirits from her That to overburden our Head or heap necessities upon him may bring us within the blame and censure of the Judicious Bodin a man not meanly learned in Politiques who decrying all unbecoming Parsimonies in a King or his Family delivers his opinion that sine Majestatis ipsius contemptu fieri non potest ea res enim peregrinos ad principem aspernandum subditos ad deficiendum excitare consuevit that to lessen the number of a Kings Servants or Attendants cannot be done without a contempt or diminution of Majesty it self which may cause Strangers to despise him and his own Subjects to rebell against him That our Ancestors the Germans did well understand what a benefit the Common people had by the Princes Honour and Reputation when they were so zealous of it and ipsa plerunque fama belli profligant many times found it to be a cause of lessening or preventing Warres And St. Hicrom was not mistaken when he concluded that ubi honor non est ibi contemptus ubi contemptus ibi frequens injuria ubi indignatio ibi quies nulla where there is not honour there is contempt and where there is contempt there are Injuries and where anger and wrath are there is no manner of quiet That it must needs be a Prognostick of a most certain ruine to the Nation to be so addicted to our pride and vanities as to take all we can from the head to bestow it upon the more ignoble and inferiour Members Or to be so infatuated and so farre fallen out with reason as to believe that they can enjoy either health or safety when the Head hath that taken from it which should procure it That our Ancestors who were so great Observers of their duties in the payment of their Tithes as to take more then an ordinary care to give and bequeath at their deaths a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Symbolum Animae as a Mortuary or Compensation pro substractiâ—ne decimâ—rum personâ—lium nec non oblationum for Tithes and Offerings the Pourveyance for those which served at the Altaâ— negligently or against their wills forgotten to such a value as their dextrarium ferro coopertum best horse carrying the Armes not Escutcheons of its Lords and Master or if the party deceasing were noâ— of so great an estate gave meliorem bovem his best Oxe and with such a solemnity as those or the like Mortuaries were led or driven before the Corps when it was carried to be interred or if not given in specie were sure to be redeemed with money of which Thomas de Bello Campo Earl of Warwick in anno 43 of the Reign of King Edward the Third was so mindfull as he did by his last Will and Testament give to every Church within his multitude of Manours his best Beast which should then be found in satisfaction of his Tithes forgotten to be paid would ever have made it their business to withdraw or hinder their Oblations and Duty of Pourveyance to God Almighties Vicegerent the Keeper of both Tables and the Protector of them or rejoyce in the Bargain which hath been made for the Kings acquittal of it or by plowing over the roots or by the filthy smoke and vapours of some particular private ugly Interests have rejoyced in blasting and destroying that Royall Oak of Hospitality which like the mighty Tree in Nebuchadnezars Vision reached unto Heaven and the sight thereof to the ends of all the Earth had fair leaves and much fruit yielding meat for many under which the Beasts of the field dwelt and upon whose branches the Fâ—wls of heaven had their habitation to the end they might make their own fiâ—es and waâ—me themselves by the withered and dead boughs and branches thereof Or that the People of England who were wont so much to reverence and love their Kings and to remember benefits and favours received from them as to give Lands and other Hereditaments in peâ—petuity to pray for the health of their Kings as amongst many others which may be instanced Ivo Tallebois post decessum Gulielmi Anglorum Regis donavit Deo sancto Nâ—cholao pro animabus ipsius Regis ac Regine Matildae uxoris ejus ad augmentum victus Monachorum sanctae Mariae de Spalding decimam Thelonei Salinarum de Spalding gave tâ—e Tenth of his Tolls and Salt-piâ—s to pray for the souls of William the Conqueror and Queen Matilda his Wife Mauserus Biset Sewer to King Henry the First gave likewise in
Winter and Sommer at less then 20 shiâ—lings a Chaldron and it was by the Statute of 32 H. 8 cap. 8. ordained That none do sell Phesants or Partriches unto any but unto the Officers of the King Queen or Princes Houses upon the forfeiture of 6 s. 8 d. for every Phesant and 4 s. 4 d. for every Partrich and did by their Charters or allowances of Prescription grant Free-warren and divers other Franchises unto divers Lords of Manors yet matters must be so ordered as the King though he buy with ready mony must be sure to pay dearer for his Butter Cheese Coals Beer Ale Billet Tallwood Faggots Grocery-ware Rabbets Phesants and Partriches then any of his Subjects Took away by the Statute of 5 Eliz. the severity of the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. enjoyning small wages to Labourers and Artificers and ordained That the Justices in every County should by their discretion according to the dearth or plenty of victuals yearly at the Sessions held at Easteâ— assesse how much every Mason Carpenter Tyler other Crafts men Workmen and Labourers should have by the day or year and limit proportions of Wages according to plenty or scarcity and by an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King James did amongst other things give a further power to the Justices of every County to limit and regulate the wages and hire of Labourers and Artificers according to plenty and scarcity that Act of Parliament being since expired for want of continuance yet the King in all his occasions and affairs for Workmen and Artificers shall be sure to pay them rates and wages at the highest Did by the Statute of 23 Ed. 3. cap. 6. provide That Butchers Fishmongers Brewers Bakers Poulterers and other Sellers of Victuals should sell them at reasonable prices and be content with moderate gains And by the Statute of 13 R. 2. ca. 8. That all Majors Bayliffs Stewards of Franchises and all others that have the order and survey of victualls in Cities Boroughs and Market Towns where victuals shall be sold in the Realm should enquire of the same And if any sell any victuals in other manner he should pay the treble of the value which he so received to the party damnified or in default thereof to any other that will pursue for the same By the Statute of 25 Hen. 8. cap. 2. when but a year before Beef and Pork was by Act of Parliament ordained to be sold at an half penny the pound and Mutton and Veal at an half penny farthing the pound and less in Counties and places that may sell it cheaper and complaint was made in Parliament that the prices of victuals were many times enhaunced and raised by the greedy avarice of the owners of such victuals or by occasion of ingrossing and regrating the same more then upon any reasonable or just ground or cause ordained that the prices of Butter Cheese Capons Hens Chickens and other victualâ— necessary for mans sustenance should from time to time as the case should requireâ— be set and taxed at reasonable prices how they should be sold in gross or by retail by the Lord Chancellor of England Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings most honourable Privy Councel Lord Privy Seal Lord Steward the Chamberlain and all other the Lords of the Kings Councel Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings most honourable House Chancellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Kings Justices of either Bench the Chancellor Chamberlains under Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer or any seaven of them whereof the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Councel or the Lord Privy Seal to be one and commanded the Justices of Peace and Lords of Leets to take a care that the prices and rates of victuals be reasonable Yet the King must not have so much favour and kindness as the Tinientes or Magistrates in the Canarâ—es or other parts of the Spanish Dominions who by reason of their power and authority in the correction and rating of the prices of victuals can have their provisions freely and of gift presented unto them or at small and reasonable rates and prices or as the Lords of Leets the Justices of Assise Justices of Peace Mayors Magistrates of Cities and Corporations might have theirs if they would but put in execution the Laws which are entrusted to their care and charges Nor can have any thing at reasonable rates but is enforced to pay dearer for the provisions of his house then any of his Subjects when as they that could receive his Majesties very large and unexampled Act of Oblivion can only afford him in their Market rates an Act of Oblivion for his protection and care of them and for his many favours and helps in all their occasions and necessities and for forgiving them many Millions of monies sterling or the value thereof and as unto too many of them are willing that our King and Head should in the rates of his victuals and houshold provisions bear the burden of their follies and irregularities Of which the plenty or scarcity of money cannot be any principal or efficient cause as may be verified by an instance or example lately happened in Spain where the calling down of money to the half value to aswage the afflictions of a Famine was so farre from the hoped for effect of abating the prices of victuals and houshold Provisions as they are now well assured that the covetousness of the Sellers and tricks of Trade have added more to the heightning of those rates and prices then any want or abundance of mony And it would therefore well become that part of the People of England who by their intemperance and carelesness as iâ— they were that Nation which dwelt without care against whom the Prophet Jeremy denounced Gods heavy wrath and judgements have brought and reduced themselves and their Estates into a languishing and perishing condition and turned their backs upon the honor of Hospitality to take into their more then ordinary consideration that Sir Anthony Brown a Privy Councellor â—â—to King Henry Eighth did not deviate either from truth or prudence when he said that others apprehension of the Kings greatness did contribute as much to our welfare as our welfare it self or Sir John Russel a vâ—ry valiant as well as wise Statesman Comptroler of the Houshold of King Henry the Eighth and afterwards Earl of Bedford when he declared that the Courts of Princes being those Epitomes through which â—trangers look into Kingdomes should be royally set out with utensils and with attendance who might possess all comers with reverence there and fear elsewhere Or that the learned and reverend Sir James Dier Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-pleas in the 25 th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth committed an error when in the sage and discreet rules left behind him in a Manuscript for the preservation of the Common-wealth he advised that
the Prince should often appear unto his People in Majesty and that the Courtiers should keep good houses And if they will do no more to do but as much as the Beasts and Birds being irrational creatures do by their bodies natural make it their greatest care to protect and preserve the Head of our Body Politique and the honor and dignity of it and keep it above water And now that by his gracious Government and return to us like the Sun to dispel the cold and uncomfortableness which the Winter of his absence had almost for ever fastned upon us Cum fixa manet reverentia patrum Firmatur seâ—ium juris priscamquè resumunt Canitiem leges when our Parliaments and our just and ancient Laws are again restored Claustrisque solutis Tristibus exsanguâ—s andent procedere leges and released from their former affrights and terrors Not endeavour to abridge or endanger the hopes of our future happiness by being to sparing unto him that was not so unto us Jam captae vindex patriae Ut sese pariter diffudit in omnia regni Membra vigor vivusquè redit color urbibus aegris and redeemed our happiness from its Captivity But rather imitate the Clergie of the Bishopricks of Gloucester Chester Oxford Peterborough and Bristol who in the fourth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth finding those Bishopricks to be much impoverished by the Earl of Leicester and some other who in their vacancies had gotten away a great part of the Revenues thereof did by their Benevolences for some years after enable the Bishops thereof in some tolerable degree to maintain their Hospitalities And our long ago departed Ancestors who took it ill in the Reign of King John with whom they had so much and more then they should contended for their Liberties that Hubert Arch-bishop of Canterbury should keep a better House and Feast at Easter then the King And that Cardinal Woolsey in the Reign of King Henry the Eight should keep as great a state at Court as the King exercise as great an Authority in the Country for Pourveyance as the King and forbid Pourveyance to be made in his own Jurisdictions which made an addition to the Articles of High Treason or great Misdemeanors charged upon him by the Commons in Parliament brought up to the House of Peers by Sir Anthony Fitz-Herbert afterward a learned Judge of the Court of Common pleas So that our King may not for want of his antient rights of Pourveyance or an Allowance or Compositions for them the later of which as a means to make so unquestionable a right and priviledge of the Crown of England to be alwayes gratefull and welcome to them was fiâ—st designed set on foot contrived by Sir David Brook Serjeant at Law unto King Henry the Eighth and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the Reign of Queen Mary and happily effected or brought to perfection in or about the 4 th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth be necessitated to retrench or lay down his Royal Housekeeping and Hospitalities or deprived of his means of Charity and Magnificence which Jacob Almansor the learned Arabian King who lived in Anno 654. and conquered Spain was in his swarthy Dominions so carefull to preserve as after that he had given audience unto Suitors which were some dayes in every week he usually caused a publique cry to be made that all of them as well rich as poor should stay and take their refections and to that end furnished Tables for them with such abundance of provisions as became the house of so mighty a King And that if any forreign King or Prince should as Cecily Sister to the King of Sweden and Wife to the Marquess of Baden did by a far a long Voyage come from the North into England to visit our Queen Elizabeth and see the splendour of her Court which as to her Charity splendour and Hospitality though so over-sparing in other things and so unwilling to draw monyes out of her Subjects purses as she lost the fair hopes and opportunity of regaining Calais which was so much desired by her was very plentifully and magnificent and with the allowance of many more Tables then have been in the times of her Successors they may return into their Country as that Princess did with a wonder at it and not be constrained to say as was once said of the glory of the Temple of Jerusalem Who is left amongst you that saw this house in her first glory and how do you see it now and that returning into the former good wayes manners and custome of England we may not be damnati fatâ— populi but virtute renati And that to that end we shall do well to leave ouâ— new and untrodded By-wayes of Error made by the Raiser of Taxes and the Filchers of the Peoples Liberties in the Glory of anothers Kingdome now we have so wofully seen felt heard and understood so very many mischiefs and inconveniences already happened and if not speedily prevented are like to be a great deal more and hearken unto the voyce and dictates of the Laws of God and Nature the Laws of the Land and Nations Reason and Gratitude and let our Posterity know that the honor of our King and Country is dear unto us and that whatever becomes of our own Hospitalities we shall never be willing to let the Vestaâ— Fire of the British and English Hospitalities although most of our own are either extinguished or sunk into the Embers go out or be extinct in our King Palaces or to abjure or turn out of its course so great part of the Genius of the Nation but that we shall continue the duties of Praeemption and Pourveyance which are as old as the first Generations of Mankind and as antient as the duty of reverence of Children to their Parents Dent Fata Recessum FINIS Accompts inter Evidentia Comitis Oxon. Stows Survey of London Sieur Colberts Remonstrance of the benefit of the Trade to be driven by the French in the East-Indies Lessius de Just. Jur. lib. 2. cap. 21. n. 148. Cokes 4. part Institutes 12 Ed. 4. c. 8. 25 H. 8. cap. 2. Epist. Rom. 6. Speed Hist. of England Heylin hist. Ecclesiae Anglicanae domes reformatae Waler Max. lib. 8. cap. 5. Cicero in oratione pro Muroena Gervasius Tilburiensis Assisa panis cervisiae and a Statute for punishing the breach thereof by Pillory and Tumbrell Anno 51 H. 3. Rot. Fin. 11 E. 2. Cokes 1. part Institutes 70 Rot. parl 25 â— 3. m. 56. Inter Recorda in Recept Scaccarii inter Fines de tempore H. 3. Speed Hist. of Great Britain M. S. in custodia Gulielmi Dugdale Spelman Annotat. ad Concilia decreta leges Ecclesiastica 349. Asser Menevensis de gestis Alfredi 19. 23. Henry Huntingdon and William Malmesbury de gestis regum Angliae Speed History of England Stows Survey