senescalli marescalli manifestum dampnum non modicum and manifest prejudice of the Office of the aforesaid Steward and Mareschall and no small damage ad quorum officium non ad alium Summonitiones attachiamenta infra Palatium domini Regis pertineat faciend When as it belongeth to their Office or Places and not unto any other to make or cause summons or attachments within the Kings House or Palace etiam ad dampnum predict Comitis quinque mille librarum and likewise to the damage of the said Earl 5000 l. Whereupon the said Prior and Bogo confessing the Citation but pleading that they were ignorant that the place aforesaid was exempt and that they did not understand that any contempt was Committed against the King or any prejudice done to his Officers by the Citation aforesaid and in all things submitting unto the Kings grace good will and pleasure were Committed Prisoners to the Tower of London there to remain during the Kings Pleasure and being afterwards Bailed the said Bogo paid to the King a fine of 2000 marks and gave security to the Earl for 1000 l. which by the intercession of the Bishop of Durham and others of the Kings Counsel was afterwards remitted unto 100 l and the Prior was left to the Judgement or Proces of the Exchequer And upon a Citation served in the Kings Palace at Westminster in the 21 th year of the Raign of King Edward the first upon Joane Countess of Warren then attending the Queen upon a Libel of Divorce at the Suite of Matilda de Nyctford it was upon full examination of the Cause in Parliament adjudged the King being present in these words Quod praedictum Palatium Domini Regis est locus exemptus ab omni Jurisdictione ordinaria tam Regiae dignitatis Coronae suae quà m libertatis Ecclesiae Westmonaster maximè in praesentia ipsius Domini Regis tempore Parliamenti sui ibidem Ita quod Nullus summonitiones seu Citationes ibidem faciat praecipuè illis qui sunt de sanguine Domini Regis quibus major reverentia quam aliis fieri debet Consideratum est quod Officiar ' Committatur Turri London ibidem custodiatur ad voluntatem Domini Regis that the said Palace of the King is a place freed from all ordinary Jurisdiction aswel by reason of the Kings Crown and Dignity Royal as the Liberty of the Church of Westminster but more especially of the Kings presence in the time of Parliament so as none may presume to make summons or Citations there and especially to or upon those which are of the blood Royal to whom a greater Reverence then to others is due The Kings Palace at Westminster having as Sir Edward Coke saith the Liberty and Priviledge that no Citations or Summons are to be made with in it and that Royal Priviledge is saith he not only appropriated to the Kings Palace at Westminster but to all his Palaces where his Royal Person resides and such a Priviledge as to be exempted from all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Regiae dignitatis Coronae suae ratione by reason of His Crown and Kingly Dignity The Circuit of our Brittish Ocean the Promontories with the adjacent Isles or parts encompassing our Britain from the North of England by the East and South to the West vindicated by our great and eminently Learned Selden being called the Kings Chambers do justly claim and are not to be denied Dimissionem velorum a striking or louring of Sail by the Ships of other Nations in their passage by any of our Admirals or Ships of War heretofore submitted unto and acknowledged by our late causelesly contending Neighbours the Dutch and French and was not only done by those Nations and all other strangers Ships in their passage by and through our Seas but by them and our own Ships in their sailing upon the River of Thames by the Kings Palace or House at Greenwich though he be not present by striking their Topsail and Discharge of a Cannon or Gun seldom also omitted in other Countries by Ships that pass by any Royal-forts or Castles of Kings in Amity with them as at Croninbergh and Elsenor in or near the Baltick Sea And no small Civility or Respect was even in a Forreign Countrey or Kingdom believed to be belonging and appropriate to the Residence in and Palace of a King of England and was not denyed to our King Edward the first in the 14 th year of His Raign when he was as Fleta tells us at Paris in France in alieno territorio in the King of France his Dominions where one Ingelram de Nogent being taken in the King of England's House or where he was lodged at Paris with some Plate or Silver-dishes which he had stollen about him Rege Franciae tunc presente the King of France being then in the House the Court of the Castellan of the King of France claiming the Cognizance or Trial of that Thief after a great debate thereof had before the King of France and his Council it was Resolved Quod Rex Angliae illa Regia Praerogativa hospitii sui privilegio uteretur gauderet that the King of England should enjoy his Kingly Prerogative and the Priviledge of his House and that Thief being accordingly tried before Sir Robert Fitz John Knight Steward of the King of England's House was for that offence afterwards hanged at St. German lez Prees The Bedel of the University of Cambridge was though he asked pardon for it committed to the Gaol for Citing one William de Wivelingham at Westminster Hall door and Henry de Harwood at whose Suit it was prosecuted committed to the Marshal and paid 40 s. Fine Which necessary and due Reverence to the Kings Courts or Palaces being never denied unless it were by Wat Tyler or Jack Cade and the pretended Holy-rout of the Oliver Piggs bred that laudable custome of the best Subjects of England and all other mens going or standing uncovered in the Kings Chamber of presence even in those houses where he is not Resident Privy-chamber Bed-chamber and Galleries the being uncovered or bare-headed when the Scepter and Globe Imperial have been amongst the Kings Jewels and Plate kept in the Tower of London being accompted one of the Kings Palaces shewed unto any which have desired to see them which the Prince of Denmark as also the Embassador of the King of Sweden have not lately denied and allows not the Ladies Wives or Daughters of Subjects the Daughters of the King and the Wife of the Prince or Heir apparent only excepted to have their trains carried up in the aforesaid separate rooms of State nor a Lord of a Mannor to Arrest or Sieze his Villaine in the Kings presence forbids the Coaches of any but the Kings or the Queens or Heir apparents Wife or their Children or of Embassadors introduced in the Kings Coach from Kings or a Republique such as Venice who in regard
Spanish Ambassadors not long ago in Holland and a little after in England the cares which Princes to whom they are sent have taken to give them satisfaction or to prevent their jealousies or discontents their gifts and presents unto them their Secretaries and principal of their Servants personal and peculiar honours and favours to Ambassadors distinct from a greater to their Soveraign and their sometimes bold and resolute refusals where they found any diminution or neglects of which Bodin Besolus our learned Doctor Zouch and Sir John Finet in their learned Books de Marsellaer Albericus Gentilis Legatis Legationibus concerning Embassies and the Relation of the Earl of Carlisle's stout and prudent management of his Embassies into Muscovy will afford plenty of instances and examples With the more than ordinary civilities and respects used by divers Princes Cities Common-wealths to Ambassadors of Princes and States in League or Friendship with them in their passage to the Princes to whom they are sent or return from their Embassies when the character or representation of their Prince being laid by they are but little more than what they were in their former degrees or qualities as our Sir Daniel Harvey sent to Constantinople and the Earl of Winchelsea in his coming home from the like Imployment can testifie And the great care which hath been taken by the Law of Nations and all civilized Kingdoms States and Commonwealths of Christendom of the Priviledges of Ambassadors which at the highest esteem that can be given them are no other than Extraordinary Servants which for their great abilities in Learning State affairs or Foreign Languages were made choice of by their Soveraign sometimes out of the Subjects and Nobility not immediate Servants and at other times some of the Servants and Officers in Ordinary as of the Privy-Chamber and Bed-Chamber held by the Custome of the wiser and more prudent part of Nations to be so sacred and inviolable as the Emperor Augustus made the putting to death of his Ambassadors and Heralds Titurius and Arunculeius by the Germans to be the cause of a War made against them and swore never to cut the hair of his head and beard untill he had punished them for that misdemeanor And the Greeks and Romans those great Masters of wisdom prudence and civilities and the Persians and many other Nations made it to be some of their greatest concernments to vindicate any the least indignities or injuries offered or done unto their Messengers or Ambassadors And our Laws have informed us that in the 22 th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3 d. one John at Hill was condemned for High Treason for the Murder of A. de Walton Nuncium Domini Regis missum ad mandatum Regis exequendum the Kings Ambassador for which he was drawn hanged and beheaded for saith Sir Edward Coke Legatus ejus vice fungitur a quo destinatur honorandus est sicut ille cujus Vicem gerit Legatos violare contra jus gentium est and Ambassador represents him that sent him and is to be honoured accordingly for it is against the Law of Nations to violate or wrong an Ambassador Et honor Legati honor mittentis est Proregis dedecus redundat in Regem the honour of an Ambassador is the honour of him that sends him and any dishonour done unto him redounds unto his Prince or Superiour For it was in the Reign of King Richard the second adjudged in Parliament to be High Treason to kill or violate an Ambassador of any Prince or Commonwealth in the Case of John Imperiall an Envoy or Ambassador from Genoa slain by the malice of some of his Adversaries and declared in Parliament que le case eslant examine dispute inter les Seigniors Commons puis monstre al Roy en pleine Parliament estoit illonques nostre Seignior le Roy declares determinus assentus que tiel fait coupe est Treason crime de Royall Majesty blemye en quel case il ne doit allower a nullui priviledge del Clergie that the Case being examined and debated betwixt the Lords and Commons and afterwards shewed to the King in full Parliament it was then before the King determined and agreed that the act was Treason and a crime in derogation of Royal Majesty in which no Priviledge of Clergy was to be allowed The great Gustavus Adolphus not long ago victorious King of Sweden made the neglect and slighting of his Ambassadors by Ferdinand the second Emperor of Germany a Justification or Proem of his after most famous and notable exploits against him in Germany and his Ambassadors to be had in such regard as they could safely travel through Fields of his subdued Enemies blood conquered Towns Cities sacked and Armies ready marshalled to act and execute the direfull Tragedies of Battel and Bellona and to be every where protected and not injured And within a few years last past Don Mario the then Popes Brother being guilty only of an affront given at Rome to the Duke de Crequy the French Kings Ambassador by the Corsairs the Popes Guards the Popes Nuntio was in great displeasure sent away from the Court of France and a War so threatned as that imagined Spiritual Father of the Popish part of Christendom was with great loss of reputation enforced to submit to such Conditions as the King of France claiming to be the eldest Son of the Church would besides the punishment of the Delinquents impose upon him and suffer a Pillar to be erected in Rome to testifie the outrage and the severe punishment inflicted for it to the wonder of many Nations and people coming thither that he who sold so many Millions of Pardons to the living and dead should not be able to obtain of the Most Christian King a pardon and forbearance of that Pillar of Ignominy which continuing some years was lately as a signal favour to the See of Rome permitted to be taken down and no more to be remembred And it was not without cause that our Royal Soveraign did in October 1666. by his Letter to the Estates of Holland and the United Provinces justly charge upon them amongst other the causes of his War with them injuries done unto him and his Subjects by the imprisoning of the Domestick Servants of his Envoy and likewise of his Secretary and putting a Guard upon his House And was so necessary an observance amongst Princes and Republiques as howsoever they then faltred and misused their Wisdoms therein that Nation and their Union of Boores Mariners Artificers and others although many of them could hardly find the way to put off their hats or use civilities unto their great and Princely Protectors the Illustrious Princes of Orange have deemed it to be a part of the Subsistence and Policy of that now flourishing Republique to be strict observers of all manner of civilities and respects to the Ambassadors of Princes And the Swisses
such an entercourse betwixt England and Rome and our Kings had so much ado to guard the Rights and Priviledges of themselves and their people from the Papal attempts and usurpations and many of our Kings had in their possession Normandy Aquitain and in other Provinces of France divers Forts and Castles they might well have occasions of sending many that were not of the Houshold which were better to be spared then those of whom they had daily use of occasion of service and that where the Protections were quia moraturus it was not seldom mentioned to be about fortifying a Castle or Town or providing Victuals for them or an Army and may rather be deemed to be none of the Houshold for that in the Register of Writs some Protections are revoked by the King because they pretended to go when they were commanded but did not or followed their own occasions and affairs not the Kings which cannot be easily understood of the Kings Servants in ordinary who in those dayes would not be willing to absent themselves from such profitable and eminent services and imployments And Sir Edward Coke in his greatest aversion to the just Rights and Regalities of the Crown is positive that besides the Kings general Protection of his loyal Subjects there is a particular Protection of two sorts the one to give a man an Immunity and freedom from all Actions or Suits the second for the safety of his person Servants and Goods Lands and Tenements whereof he is lawfully possessed from violence unlawfull molestation or wrong the first is of right and by Law and the second sort are all of Grace saving one and that the Kings Protection so as it be under the Great Seal of England as well moraturus as profecturus upon any mans going or abiding in the Kings service must be regularly to some place out of the Realm of England and that in some Actions as in a Scire facias upon Recoveries Fines Judgements c. In a Writ upon the Statute of Labourers although by the Statute made in the second year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th cap. 15. and the Statute made in the 5th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth cap. 4. no Protection is to be allowed and in a Writ of Deceit notwithstanding the rule of Law is that fraudi aut dolo Lex non patrocinatur Deceit is not to be favoured a Protection doth lye And that the Kings Protections are to be brought to the Courts of Justice where the Action is laid be they Courts of Record or not of Record and not to the Sheriff or any other Officer or Minister and are allowable not only unto men of full age but within age and for Countesses and women as nutrix lotrix or obstetrix Nurses of the Kings Children the Midwife to the Queen or Laundresses of the King or Queen Protections do lye and have been allowed where Essoines do not and denyeth not but a man having a Protection Quia moraturus and returning from beyond Sea only to provide Ammunition Habiliments of War Victuals or other necessaries for the Kings service and be arrested or imprisoned he shall enjoy the benefit of his Protection and denyeth not but that some Protections Quia nolumus because we will not that he should be molested may be granted by the King of grace and gives his opinion that where it is pro negotiis regni for the concern or business of the Kingdom jura publica ante ferenda privatis private mens actions are to give way or yield to the publick and private mens Actions and Suits must be suspended for a convenient time where it is pro bono publico the Weal-publick as certainly the necessary attendance of his Servants in ordinary either for his honour conveniency health or safety do relate unto and concern the peoples good and safety the protection of their lives and estates and the well being of themselves and their posterity and all that can be dear or near unto them And such kind of Protections of Servants in ordinary or extraordinary may be as consistent with Law or Reason as a Writ of Rege inconâ—ulto commanding a forbearance of proceedings in the case of one of the Kings Servants arrested or prosecuted at Law without leave first obtained should not be awarded as the Law and practice thereof is well contented to do it where the King is in Reversion or hath any Title to the thing or matter in demand which may be done at the prayer or request of the party concerned or of the Kings Councel or ex officio Curiae by the Court it self and as well as the Justices allowed a Supersede as to stay an Assise where the Defendant was in the service of the King in his Wars beyond the Seas or to stay Suits against divers Tenants in Northumberland upon Writs of Cessavit to forfeit their Lands for non-payment of their Rents and performing their services to their Lords in regard of the then Wars with the Scots untill the War should be ended or to save a default of the Tenant or Defendant and to adjourn the Suit or Action to another day or where one is convict of redisseisin and taken or arrested by a Capias the King commanded by his Privy Seal that no Process should issue and if any should issue that they should surcease and the Writ was thereupon staid For surely had not such or the like Protections been heretofore accounted to have been as legal as they were warrantable and usual there would not have been an Act of Parliament made in the 5th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. to forbid the allowance of them in Writs of Attaint against Jurors or in Writs of Novel Disseisin and is the first Act of Parliament which did in any case absolutely deny the allowance of the Kings Protection imitated and followed by the Act of Parliament made in the 13th year of the Reign of King Richard the 2d to prohibit Protections in the case where upon a default of the particular Tenant in a real Action he in the reversion is to be received to plead in a Suit commenced against him and the Act of Parliament and Penal Law made in the 23th year of the Reign of King Henry the 6th against such of the Kings Purveyors as did take Provisions from the people without paying for them and many an Act of Parliament and Penal Law from thence unto this present Which Protections or Tabulae â—utelares have been by Law and may be granted for a reasonable time unto any of the Kings Debtors untill the Kings Debt be paid with liberty given to their Creditors to proceed in the mean time but not to take out any Writs of Execution or to some that in unruly and troublesome times obtained their salva Guardia or Protection propter quosdam Aemulos where force or incivilities were feared or where upon sudden and unexpected Embargoes
waiting or attendance ANd submit themselves and those their innovated formerly unheard of cavils and pretences to the power of truth and a conviction of those their great mistakings if they shall but examine the necessity as well as the reason of it for to a Soveraign Prince whose cares are to reach as far as his Monarchy there cannot be in respect of the multitude and various sorts of his daily and ever importuning affairs in the behalf of himself and the Weal-publick a few or small number to be imployed therein if there were neither Honour nor Majesty to be heeded or supported both which by an universal consent Law Custom and usage of Nations approved and subscribed unto by a general consent of the intellect and rational faculties of Mankind should be not only the desire and joy of the people which are to be ruled and governed by them but is a ready means help and stay unto their welfare peace and happiness of which the examples are as many as the ages past and the people and Kingdoms of it When Abraham although sometimes stiled a Prince but was no Soveraign Prince but a Sojourner in the Plain of Mamre had 318. Servants to go to Battel with him against his five Neighbour Kings who had taken and spoiled his Brother Lot David had together with the Princes and Rulers of the Tribes great numbers of Officers and Men of War Officers of his Houshold and Servants therein and over his Estate besides the twelve Captains which as his Guards did in every month of the year by turns and courses attend him and the safety of his person with four and twenty thousand fighting men Solomon his Son had twelve great Officers in their severally appointed Provinces to provide Victuals for the King and his Houshold by courses each man for his month and made the Children of Israel to be his men of War and his Servants and his Princes and his Captains and Rulers of his Chariots and his Horsemen had a thousand and four hundred Chariots and twelve thousand Horsemen which declared the number of his Servants not to be small petit or inconsiderable and were so well ordered as the Queen of Sheba with a great train coming from far to see his Glory and his Court when she did behold the meat of his Table the standing of his Servants as the Margin notes it the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel and his Cup-bearers suffered under a Deliquium and failing of her spirit when he had such a state and magnificence to accompany his Regal power and so great a number of Servants to furnish out the glory and honour of his house and person Ahasuerus had seven Chamberlains as Solomon had more then one Cup-bearer and Esther had seven Maidens allowed to her The Western and Eastern divided Empires of Romes vastly extended Conquests glorying in their magnificence had to adorn the honour and state of their Emperors in their Houses and Palaces busied with multitudes of Civil affairs their Scholaes and Offices daily and hourly conversant in the attendance of their Persons Houshold or Civil imployments in every one of which although Alexander Severus the Emperor did lessen and contract them and ordained ut essent tâ—t homines in singulis Officiis quot necessitas postularet that there might be in every Office or imployment so many Servants as necessity required there wree of one and the same sort several ranks and orders amounting to as great a number as the Imperial port state and imployments might require and could not be small when they kept as we say open houses to â—eed or refresh those great numbers which came either to honour or petition their Princes had so many several Governours Procurators and Servants and so many several Houses and Palaces in their many Kingdoms and Provinces and sometimes made and set out so many Epulae and publick Feasts and many thousand Tables of them at one time to entertain comfort or please the people and to any that shall read the elaborate and learned Comment of Cuiacius upon the 10th 11th and 12th Codes or Books of Justinian Pancirollus notitia utriusque Imperii and the laborious and learned Book of Jacobus Gutherius of the various Offices and kinds of Services as well private as publick in the Houses and Palaces of the antient Emperors will not appear to be much if at all supernumerary Charlemaigne the Great King of France and Emperor of Rome as Hinckmarus Archbishop of Remes writeth who in the latter end of his Reign lived and was bred up in his Court had his several Servants and took a more then ordinary care pro honestate Palatii Regaâ—i Ornamento for the honour of his House or Palace and his Royal Ornaments singulis quibusque quotidianis necessitatibus occurrentibus every one in their station performing their several Offices and the Constitution of his house so laudable as multitudo congrua sine quâ— rationabiliter honeste esse non possit such a competent number or multitude was necessary in regard that otherwise the business of the Houshold or Palace could not be rationally or honourably done and care was to be taken ut semper esset ornatum Palatium Consiliariis condignis nunquam destitutum esset that the honour of the Kings house might be preserved and never want the advice and help of worthy Assistants and where he speaks of the number of Huntsmen and Falconers and their constant attendance within or without the Court saith Sensus in his omnibus talis erat ut nunquam Palatio tales vel tanti deessent ministri that the meaning was that there should never want such or the like Servants And imparts to us a further reason of such a number of Servants attending the Courts of Princes in those heroick times ut ex quacunque parte totius regni quicunque desolatus orbatus alieno aere oppressus injusta calumnia cujusque suffocatus seu caetera his similia maxime tamen de Viduis Orphanis unuscujusque secundum suam indigentiam vel qualitatem Dominorum vero misericordiam pietatem semper ad manum haberet per quem singuli ad pias aures Principis perferre potuissent that from all parts of the Kingdom whoever was distressed afflicted endebted or unjustly accused or the like especially Widdows and Orphans might according to their several necessities and qualities have some at hand to procure the mercy and piety of their Lords or Masters whereby every ones Petition or Complaint might come unto the gracious ears of the Prince King Aelfred or Alured who reigned here in the year of Christ 856. had in his Court a great and Princely attendance of Bishops Earls and Nobility Knights and Esquires and three Troops of Souldiers for the Guards of his Palace as if he had an intention somewhat to imitate David the King of Israel and Juda tanquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
of record under his Seal In Easter Term in the fourth year of that King in an Action of Trespass after a distress awarded against the Jurors and the Array challenged a Protoction was after a grand debate allowed Martin one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas going to the Justices of the Kings Bench to ask their advice and from thence into the Exchequer Chamber to Juni Chief Baron In Michaelmas Term in the 19th year of the Reign of that King a man being taken by a Capias had a Protection allowed quia moraturus for the victualling of a Fort in Scotland upon a probability that he came to London to buy victuals and that issue might be taken thereupon and a repeal obtained In Hillary Term in the same year Newton Justice said that if the Demandant cast a protection it lyeth not yet an Essoin of the Service of the King doth And where the King commandeth an Attorney to do him service whereby he appeared not and the Client loseth in the mean time his land and he brings a Writ of disceit against him then it would be against reason that the King should compell him to do him service and that he should not be Essoined for that service but in such a case it seems to be usual to record the Kings service and in that case the Essoiner shall be sworn that he was in the Kings service And that a woman may be in the Kings service for that she is Nurse or Landress and a man as his Carver In Michaelmas Term in the 22th year of the Reign of that King in an Action inter Brookesby and Everard Digby al jour de nisi prius a Protection was brought and although Paston was of opinion it was not allowable because it did not agree with the Record yet Ascue was of opinion that if the Protection said suscepimus in Protectionem it was to be allowed In Michaelmas Term in the 27th year of the aforesaid King an Essoin cast for one who was gone into the Holy-land was refused because six months were passed and the Defendant should be allowed a year and a day and it was said by the Judges that it was the like where the party was in service del Roy yet it was allowed to be good in a common Essoin and a common Essoin was cast accordingly And in an Action brought in the Exchequer by a Denizen against two Aliens and the Jury adjourned a Protection was brought by the one bearing date the first day of the Nisi prius and by the second bearing date the second day and both allowed as it was in a like case and as it was held by the Judges of the one Bench and the other in the case of the Lord Hungerford In Michaelmas Term in the 8th year of that Kings Reign Danby Justice said in the case of Sir Robert Hungerford that in one and the same day the Defendant may cast many Protections and it was said that no Protection quia profecturus purchased pending the plea is allowable if it be not in a Voyage Royal or with the King himself or for great business of the Realm as appeareth by the Statute made in the 13th year of the Reign of King Richard the 2d cap. 16. and Prisot chief Justice did bid the Defendant sue to the Privy Seal and bring a Certificate that his Captain by Indenture was to serve the King in his warrs which being shewed and it appearing that he was to go into Norusandie to serve under such as the King should appoint but because it appeared not by the Indenture nor the Protection that it was in the case of the Statute the Protection was not allowed In the same Term Richard Vere bringing a Protection quia moraturus super vitulationem ville Calesie and the Plaintiff averring that he was within the four Seas and not in the Kings service the Plaintiff was ordered upon a resummons to prove his averment In Easter Term in the 30th year of that Kings Reign after an Imparlance the Defendant bringing his Protection quia moraturu super salva custodia Castri Domini Regis de B. in partibus transmarinis that he was imployed in the safe custody of the Castle of B in the parts beyond the Seas and was afterwards seen in Court it was said that if a man protected be afterwards seen in England the Plaintiff may sue forth the Kings Innotescimus to repeal the Kings Letters Patents for the Protection And that if a man bringing his Protection at the Nisi prius if betwixt that and the day in bank the Protection be repealed there shall be a resummons sued and Danby said that the Protection until the repeal was alwayes allowable In Easter Term in the 35th year of the Reign of that King it was agreed to be law that where Justices of Nisi prius have no power to allow or disallow a Protection they ought to surcease In Hillary Term in the 38th year of the Reign of the said King a Protection being cast for one that was committed to the Fleet and had a Cepi corpus retorned against him Moyle Justice alledged that he might notwithstanding be in the Service of the King whereupon the next day after he was mainprised and the Protection was allowed until the Court should further consider of it In Hillary Term in the 39th year of the Reign of the said King a Protection being disputed because it wanted the usual form it was alledged that there needed no special Protection to go to Rome for that the Embassadors or Procurators of the King who go and remain there for the profit of the King and his Realm have never used to have such Protections and if they had it would have been seen before that time and that the King by his Prerogative may take a man into his protection where another is not to be disherited and Moyle one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas then said that the King might grant a Protection for a year and that being elapsed might grant another for the like Term c. but not at the first and that a Protection quia profecturus doth not lye pendente placito depending the Plea if it be not in a Voyage Royal or business of the Realm In Michaelmas Term in the second year of King Edward the fourth at the return of a Petit cape against the Husband and Wife which is a Judgement by defalt the Husband did cast an Essoin of the Service of the King which was allowed and it was in that case said by Moyle that a Protection of the King differed from an Essoin of his Service for that the intent and effect of the Protection is that the King is the parties Protector and hath taken him into his protection and defence In Hillary Term in the 7th year of the Reign of that King the Judges were of opinion that
Officiate under them as their Deputies believed their Heirs and Lands to be blessed in the continuance and enjoyments of such Offices as might but sometimes bring them into the notice and affairs of the Prince and Emperours as the Baron of Papenheim in Germany and his Heirs to be Sub-Marshall to the Duke and Elector of Saxony the Baron of Limpurgh Vice-Butler to the King of Bohemia and the Baron of Falkenstem Vice-Chamberlain to the Elector of Brandenburgh who hath also an hereditary Marshall and the Electors of Mentz Colen and Triers the like and Christophorus Leisserus a Baron was Culinae Magister at the Coronation of the Emperour Mathias in Anno Domini 1612. The Viscounts a Title no longer ago than the Reign of King Henry the sixth as our great Selden saith turned into a Dignity Titular or Peerage being formerly and long after the Conquest but the Deputies of the Earls in their several Counties for the Administration of Justice with which the Earls were entrusted since câ—ntra distincts to the Title or Honour of Viscount and but a Sheriff or Officer of the Kings for the execution of Justice and so well liked of before that new Title of Viscounts was brought in betwixt the Earls and Barons of England as Hubert de Burgo afterwards Earl of Kent was in the Reign of King John not only Chamberlain to the King but at one and the same time Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk and the noble and antient Family of Cliffords accompted it as a favour of the Crown to be hereditary Sheriffs or Ministers of Justice in the County of Westmerland where they had Lands Baronies and honourable Possessions and having afterwards a greater honour by the Earldome of Cumberland conferred upon them disdained not to let the one accompany the other in the service of their Prince The Barons whether as the Judicious and Learned Sir Henry Spelman informs us they be feudall as gaining their honours by their Lands and Baronies given them to that purpose which in our Records and antient Charters are not seldome mentioned by the name of Honours as the Honours of Abergavenny Dudley c. or by Writs summoned to Parliament or by Patents created only into that Titular Honour either of which made a Tenure in Capite for otherwise they could not sit and enjoy their Peerage in Parliament the Kings greatest Councel are and antiently were accompted to be in their several Orbes Robur Belli the strength and power of Warr and as Barones or Vassalli Capitales men of greater estate or note than ordinary and were as the old Barones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Barangi wbo did with their Battel-Axes attend the Emperours of the East in their Courts or Palaces as their Guard sometimes on Foot and at othertimes on Horse-back and were as Codinus saith reckoned inter Honoratiores Officiales the most honourable Offices of the Court attending near the Emperours either at their Meat or Chappel or publick Addresses and in the Kingdome of Bohemia which is now no more than elective and where there are neither Dukes nor Marquesses and but few Earls the Title of Baron is of so high an esteem and the Barons of that Kingdome so jealous of any thing which might diminish it as when a Duke who is a Stranger comes to be there naturalized they do first oblige him to quit or renounce the using of his Title of Duke there and to content himself only with the Title of a Baron of Bohemia and saith Sir Henry Spelman sub Baronis appellatione recte veniunt our Dukes Marquesses Earls and Viscounts are comprehended under the name of Baron Cum vel maximus as the experience and practice of our Laws and Kingdome will evidence principis sit Vassallus when the greatest of them is but a Liege-man and Vassâ—l of the King eique tenentur homagii vinculo seu potius Baronagii hoc est de agendo vel essendo Barone suo quod hominem seu Clientem praestantiorem significat and is by the Bond of his homage or Baronage to do all things as his Baron which signifieth to be his Liege-man and more extraordinary Subject holding his Lands of him upon those beneficiary gainful honourable conditions and depending upon him and his Patronage it being to be remembred that those honorary possessions and the owners thereof did by that dependency well deserve that encomium and observation which John Gower made of them about the Reign of King Richard the second that The Privilege of â—egalie was safe and all the Barony worshipt was in his Estate And it is well known that our antient Kings in all their Rescripts Grants or Charters unto Abbyes or any other of their people directed them Archiepiscopis Episcopis Comitibus Justiciariis Baronibus Vicecomitibus Ministris suis to their Arch-bishops Bishops Earls Barons Justices and Sheriffs and other their Ministers the word Ministris being in the language of the times not only since but before the Conquest not infrequently appropriate to the Kings houshold Servants as the Charters and Subscriptions of witnesses of many of our elder Kings will abundantly evidence and the Barones Majores stiled by our Kings not unfrequently in many of their Charters Barones suos Barones nostros Barones Regios their Barons and the Kings Barons as William de Percy and many other have been called though by such Charters they could be no more concerned in it than to be Assistant in the performance and obedience of the Royal Mandates and in many Acts of Parliament have been stiled the Kings Nobles or Nobility the Deâ—neâ— Thanes or Nobility saith the eminently and universally learned Selden denoting a Servant or Minister was as well before as sometimes since the Norman Conquest Officiary Personal and Honorary and the Possessions of the Thanes from whence our Barons and Baronies were derived were held by the Service of Personal Attendance Et certissimum est saith that great and eminent Antiquary Sir Henry Spelman that Barones Majores the greater Barons which hold of the King in Capiti Judiciis praefuere Aulae Regiae did usually sit and determine causes or controversies in the Kings Court or Palace as the Barons of the Coife in the Exchequer who were heretofore Earls and Barons of England do at this day in Westminster Hall judge and determine of matters concerning the Kings Revenues And as the Lords of Mannors in their Court Barons do admit none to be Judges in those little Courts but their Tenants who are Freeholders and which do immediately hold of them are stiled and said to be of the Homage and do subserviently manage and order their Affairs therein as very antiently they did consilio prudentum hominum militum suorum by their presentments and judgements so not much differing from the Laws and Customs of the Germans where by the Court of Peers are understood causarum Feudalium Judices
Interpretation or Execution of the new that the Graecians had their Nomophilaces ad quos rerum gestarum consignatio pertinebat utextarent Monumenta Publica ad quae recurrere liceret quum aliqua in re majorum exemplum requireretur and that the Romans so greatly valued their old Records as they gave great Preferments and Honours to Flavius a Scribe or Notary And the Priviledge of a Curule Chaire for publishing and bringing some of them to light that all other Civilized Nations and even those of China and Japan have highly esteemed their Records and Memorials that in our Parliaments Courts of Justice and Chancery Records and precedents in any Matters or Cases of Difficulty are not seldome enquired after and directed to be searched that the Dates Clauses or Words of some Acts of Parliament and the Reports of Cases adjudged have been found to have been mistaken and rectified after by the Records That it is Felony to imbezill or corrupt a Record that Courts of Records are more Honoured and esteemed than those which are not and that the Law will not permit a Record to be averred against or much gainsaid And that such a care was taken of our Records by our Ancestors as the Commons of England did 〈…〉 Cause in their Petition of Parliament in the 46th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d stile them the peoples Evidence and pray to have upon their occasions a free and uninterrupted access unto them Our Kings have in several of their Reigns made allowances of Money and Expences for the Calendring and well ordering of them and caused them to be kept and preserved in places of strength and safety whereby to secure them from the fury of Wars or Fire or other destroying Casualties That if the Reports of cases adjudged upon Demurrers or special Verdicts and the responsa prudentum and carefull and well Studied Arguments of the Judges such as the Learned Mr. Plowdens Commentaries and the Reports of Dier Anderson Coke Crooke Hobart and other the Labours and Memorials of the venerable and learned sages of our Laws the Errors too often attending the Works and Labours of all Mankind only excepted do deserve their â—ust esteem and value and are a light and guide to the Reason and Judgement of Posterity and after Ages and the more when they have the assistance of the Records to back and Warrant them and that even Histories are the better when they keep in the sight and Company of Records and enjoy their Assistance And if in their Truth and Evidence they conduce much to that verity and certainty which ought to be in Histories our Records certainly cannot by any Reason or Rules of Prudence be believed or understood to be useless or unnecessary for the Study or asserting of the Truth and Rationality of our Laws and the Rules and Method thereof Nor are those Jewels of Time to be ranked with Romances or such Triviall things as may claim no more than a Cursory and careless reading when if carefully as they ought to be entred and kept they do give us the Certainty and Truth of matters of fact and do not seldome intimate or Illustrate the Causes and Reason thereof And may well deserve a better Credit than any Reports of cases adjudged or responsa prudentum some of which are but Opinions and Answers not seldom suddainly and unpremeditately given to the many times ill or untruly put State of the case or question by the Advocates and Lawyers at the Barr or than any of the most severe and impartial Histories which although they have been by the Wisest Major part of all Nations for many Ages past believed to be great and excellent Luminaries in their several Spheres and should be Testes veritatis yet if the Records of every Nation who have the happiness to have them being Tabulae Monumenta Publica the faithfull Registers of past Actions are allowed to be good to make Histories which are greater Strangers unto them than they should be and are too often written without any acquaintance with them that surely which crediteth and maketh them the better to believed is not less but more to be valued for a sad experience hath told us that the destroying of the Books of the old Philosophers by Aristotle and the former Books of the Civil Law by Justinian when he compiled his Code and Institutes and of our English Books and Manuscripts when Polidore Virgil and his History would not willingly suffer any other to be his Competitors did much obscure and hinder the Knowledge and light which is now more dark and hidden than otherwise it would have been And we may believe that if Records and faithfull and Antient Memorials had ever deserved as they never did to be slighted they might now be spared and admitted into their former reputation and not be made to truckle under Reports of Cases adjudged when our last twenty years Confusion have by the Knavery and Imposture of too many of the Stationers furnished out abundance of certain fragments of Laws and untrue and mistaken Reports and too many Histories of the World have suffered in the want of the most necessary Aid of Records when so great a part of the Knowledge of the first Ages of the World was washed away by the Deluge and the learning and Experience of many Ages after lost by the want of Letters which the Wars and the rude and unruly Behaviour of those early Generations would not admit and that to despise Records and Antiquities is to proclaim us as Tully the most excellent Roman Orator long ago said to be willing to be Children as of yesterday and to have no retrospect into the Wisdom of the Antients and experiences of past Ages teaching us wherein some have succeeded and others miscarryed is to put our selves into as short a Memory as that of the Thracians some of whom were Reported not to be able to number or reckon any further than four years or to make light incertain or loose traditions the most we can reach or attain unto and refuse the ante Acta vitae which were wont to be the faithfull guides and Conductors of our Actions to come and may render those who despise the old and only delight in new things to be in no better a Condition than some of the worthy and learned Assembly of the Royal Society of Gresham Colledge who by not heedfully considering old things have unhappily been drawn into the field and enforced to encounter with Mr. Henry Stubs his Animadversions wherein he undertakes to prove that some things which they thought to be new have been of a much more Early date So as whether Reports of Cases adjudged in Law be old or new well or ill taken both they and Histories are to acknowledge the Records to be their Superiours and that they are in all things the better for their acquaintance And those great Obligations must neither be denied or forgotten which our Laws
Familiae Regiae cum inter se tum vel adversus alios controversiae in Consilio Procerum Populi disceptantur the controversies of suits which is to be understood where the Judicium or Tribunal in Aula Caesarea in the Emperors Court cannot compose them of the Emperors family brought eithâ—r by or against them are to be heard or decided in the Diets of other publike meetings of the States of the Empire At Florence Siena and Pisa in Italy no man may arrest or commence a suit against a Courtier Souldier or Estranger without a special Licence from an Officer of the great Dukes Court thereunto appointed In the very large Dominions of the Ottoman Empire such as receive any wages or pay coming from the Exchequer or have any Office depending on the Crown are commonly free from the least Injury to be offered unto them when such as offend therein are sure to be severely punished Those sons of Winter rudeness the Russians or Moscovites can in their small commerce with Latine or other learning and the better manners of their neighbour and other Nations so well understand the Privileges or respect of Kings and Princes Embassadors who are therein but as their especial Servants or Messengers as when in the Earl of Carliles Embassy from our Soveraign King Charles the second thither to the Tzar or Emperor of Moscovy in the year 1664. a Gentleman of Plescoe having seized or distreyned two Horses belonging to the Embassadors Train which he had found in the night to have broken into his Pastures the Governor or Plescoe was no sooner enformed thereof but he apprehended the Gentleman and sent him bound to the Embassador to beg his life which upon his acknowledgement of the indiscretion of the fact was easily pardoned by the Embassador the King of Sweden not denying those respects which are due ro Embassadors when in an Embassy into Sweden in the same year he did at the Embassadors request release out of prison one of the Embassadors servants that had in a Duel slain a German Colonel of the Embassadors retinue The People of Holland and their confederate Provinces who do so fondly dream of their freedoms do not think their so hardly gained liberties lost or retrenched when for the military part of their Illustrious Princes of Orange or Stadtholders Domestiques or any of those they call the States general servants being the greatest part of their Menials they cannot Arrest and prosecute any of them at Law before leave petitioned for and obtained and as for any other of their servants not imployed in the War or any of those many several sorts of Officers and Offices appurtaining thereunto there are enough of that Nation can tell that their Greffiers or Process makers can although they are to make out their Mandates and Process ordinarily and in common forms without a special order of the Judge or Recht Heer so easily find the way to a Biass or partiality as to deny it in the case of any of their Superiors Domestiques until they have a special order for it which after a tedious attendance is not to be gained until the matter or debt complained of be referred and put to certain vreede mackers Peace-makers or Arbitrators who can toss the Case in a Blanket and make the Plaintiff a Labyrinth of delays which at long treading shall only bring him to a Mandate and a tyring chargeable and tedious prosecution at their Law against such a pâ—otected seemingly unprotected servant Nor is it rationally to be believed that the servants attending upon the person or in the Court of the Emperor of China whose Dominions are as Samedo saith as big as Spain France Italy Germany the Belgicque Provinces and Great Brittain where the Mandarines his great Officers of State Lord Lieutenants or Governors of Provinces are by the common people so highly reverenced as they are as they pass almost ador'd in all places the people passing in the Streets alighting off their horses or coming out of their Chairs or Sedans when they meet them do not enjoy as great a Privilege as the Servants in ordinary of our English Kings do claim to be free from Arrests or suits in Law before leave or licence first obtained of some of the superiour Officers of his Court or Houshold wherein there are nine Tribunals called Kicu Kim particularly appointed for matters of controversies which concern the Servants In those largely extended Empires of Japan Persia Industan and all the African and Asiatique Kingdoms and Dominions where the power and will of the Princes are their Laws the fear and obedience of their Subjects are so very great and their reverence so extraordinary as they do honour and esteem them as Demi-Gods and have so great a respect of their Chancellors Privy Councellors great Officers of State and servants implyed by them no man can so much mis-use his reason or understanding as to harbor any thought or imagination that the servants of those Emperors or Princes are at any time without leave or license arrested or prosecuted at Law And well might our Kings and Princes and all other Soveraign Kings and Princes understand the mis-usage and disgrace of their servants to be Crimen immunitae Majestatis no small crime or lessning of Majesty and an abuse and disparagement to themselves when the Romans with whom their neighbours the Sabines scorned to Ally or marry in regard of their then ignoble race and originals could in the height and grandeur of their all-conquering Republique after so many liberties obtained by taking them from others creat and constitute Majestatem populi Romani a Majesty so called of their faction breeding inconstant and popular government and accuse Rabirius Posthumus of Crimen laesae Majestatis high Treason for that being a Citizen of Rome he had contra morem majorum the usage and custom of the Romans made himself a Servant or Lacquey to Ptolomy King of Aegypt at Alexandria whereby to procure some money to be paid which was there owing unto him Neither are those that stand before our Kings and Princes or attend upon their persons or near concernments of their Royal Houshold as Servants in ordinary to be ranked amongst the multitude or put under an ordinary Character when reason of State reputation of Princes and the usage and custom of Nations have always allowed distinctions and respects proper and peculiar unto them For so much difference was alwayes betwixt the servants of the Kings of England who by the irradiation of Majesty and Regal Resplendency are not without some participation or illustration of it as they were always allowed a precedency before the greatest part of their Subjects not of the Nobility and Clergy for the Grooms of the Kings Bed-chamber doe take place of any Knight whether he be the Kings servant or not and a Knight being the Kings Servant is to take place of any Knight which is not the Kings servant in ordinary the