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Grant to
Richard of

a revenue

for life.

Appointment of eighteen Commissioners:

who usurp

the powers of Parliament.

Quarrel and banishment

every judgment, statute, or ordinance, made in the present Parliament, should in all time to come have the full force of statutes, and that any man who should attempt to repeal or overturn them should be adjudged, and have execution as, a traitor to the King and the Realm.1 The Commons then set the dangerous precedent of granting the King a tax (upon wool and hides) for the term of his life. The concluding act of the session proved the most disastrous of all to Constitutional liberty. It had been the custom to dismiss the members as soon as ever public business would permit, and to appoint a committee to hear and determine such petitions as had not been answered during the sitting of Parliament. Accordingly, a committee of twelve peers and six commoners was appointed to sit after the dissolution of Parliament. It is evident that no further power was intended by Parliament to be delegated to these eighteen Commissioners than such as had been conferred upon previous occasions. But the words of their appointment were of somewhat indefinite scope, under colour of which the Committee usurped the complete rights of the Legislature, and exercised all the powers and functions of a full Parliament.3

The obscure quarrel between the Dukes of Hereford of Hereford and Norfolk (the two remaining 'Lords Appellant ') gave and Norfolk. Richard an excuse for banishing them both. The King Triumph of was now triumphant over all his enemies. The grant of a the King.

revenue for life relieved him from the necessity of summoning a Parliament. The Committee of Eighteen issued

1 Rot. Parl. iii. 350-352.

2 Rot. Parl. iii. 368.

3 Rot. Parl. iii. 369, 372, 385. Among the charges brought against Richard prior to his deposition, he was accused of having falsified the parliament roll so as to make it appear that the commissioners had received unlimited powers. After reciting their appointment ad terminandum, dissoluto parliamento, certas petitiones in eodem Parliamento porrectas protunc minime expeditas," the impeachment continues: 'Cujus concessionis colore Persone sic deputate processerunt ad alia generaliter Parliamentum illud tangentia; et hoc de voluntate regis: in derogationem Status Parliamenti, et in magnum incomodum totius Regni, et perniciosum exemplum. Et ut super factis eorum hujusmodi aliquem colorem et auctoritatem viderentur habere, Rex fecit Rotulos Parliamenti pro voto suo mutari et deleri, contra effectum concessionis praedictae.'-Ibid. p. 418.

tion.

ordinances at the King's will, and decreed the penalties of treason against all who should disobey them; and a former declaration of the two Houses, that the King's prerogative was as free and unimpaired as that of any of his predecessors, was now construed as giving him the power to dispense with such statutes as controlled it. The career of tyranny and extortion upon which Richard had entered alienated all classes of the nation, and speedily led to his His deposi deposition. The time had now come of which the Parliament had warned the King in 1386, when it became 'lawful for his people, by their full and free assent and consent, to depose the King from his royal throne, and in his stead to raise up some other of the Royal race upon the same.' In the solemn exercise of the greatest of its powers, Parliament was careful to observe every formality. and precaution which the constitutional lawyers of that day could suggest. But although Richard was induced to resign the crown, and Henry of Lancaster laid claim to it, the deposition, the vacancy of the throne, and the subsequent election of Henry, are each recorded in the most distinct terms in the official entry on the rolls of Parliament.3

2

1 Rot. Parl. 15 Ric. II. iii. 279.

2 Knyghton, col. 2683.

3 Rot. Parl. iii. 416-424.

[On villeins and their contests with their lords, as well as on the general question of their condition, reference may be made to the Derbyshire portion of the Burton Chartulary, 11th-14th centuries, edited by Gen. Hon. George Wrottesley, in the Journal of the Derbyshire Archeological Society for 1885. I have cited it in notes to this chapter as Burton Chart. The long contest between the Abbots of Burton and their villein tenants in Magna Oufra [Mickleover], who claimed to be free tenants, is very instructive as to 1 Ric. II. c. 6. Gen. Wrottesley holds (op. cit. 153), that "the villanus, in fact, was really a well-to-do and usually prosperous tenant with fixity of tenure." This seems rather too optimistic for a general statement of the villein's position.-ED.]

310

The Lan

castrian period: its charac teristics.

CHAPTER IX.

PARLIAMENT UNDER THE LANCASTRIAN AND
YORKIST KINGS.

(A.D. 1399—1485.)

HENRY IV., HENRY V., HENRY VI., EDWARD IV., EDWAR V.,
RICHARD III.

UNDER the Lancastrian Kings the Parliament was occupied rather in the consolidation and regulation of the results of former contests with the Crown than in the acquisition of any new fundamental rights. The Commons continued to exercise, with but slight opposition, the main rights which they had established during the 14th century,-voting taxes, appropriating the supplies, which they made dependent upon the redress of grievances, examining public accounts, controlling the internal administration, sharing in legislation, and intervening in questions of war and peace, and in all important business, foreign and domestic. But the chief characteristic of the period was the settlement of the internal constitution of Parliament, and the establishment of its principal forms of procedure and most essential privileges. During the latter half of the 15th century, the House of Commons became much less independent than it had been under Edward III., Richard II., or Henry IV. The Wars of the Roses in the first place enhanced the power of the nobles

1 'C'est une époque plus remarquable par certains perfectionnements dans les ressorts du gouvernement parlementaire, que par la conquête de grands droits et par la formation d'institutions fondamentales.'-Guizot, Hist. du Gouv. Représ. ii. 413.

at the expense of the Commons, who proved invariably ready to give a parliamentary sanction to the claims of a victorious military leader; and, finally, by almost annihilating the ancient nobility, left the Lower House to face unaided the augmented power of the Crown. But the Increased importance growing importance of the popular assembly is proved by of the the attempts, which were now systematically made by the Commons. Crown and the nobility, to influence the elections in boroughs as well as in counties. A seat in the House of Commons, even as the representative of a borough constituency, became an object of ambition to the members of what would now be termed County families, and the higher social status to which the burgesses had attained is marked by the fact, to which Hallam calls attention, that in the reign of Edward IV., and not before, they received the addition of 'Esquire' in the returns made by the sheriffs.1

2

grants, ap

examination

Instances of illegal taxation are very rare under the Taxation : Lancastrian Kings. Under Richard II. the system of conditional forced loans, of which we find the Commons complaining propriation for the first time in the second year of his reign, had been of supplies, very extensively made use of, but the Lancastrian Kings of accounts. seldom had recourse to this means of filling their coffers. In 1400, Henry IV. appears to have obtained an aid from a Great Council, but its members did not pretend to charge any besides themselves. There is also an instance during the minority of Henry VI., of illegal conduct with respect to

1 Midd. Ages, iii. 119. The importance attached to a seat in Parliament at this time, and the attempts made to influence the electors, are shown in the contemporary Paston correspondence. In vol. i. p. 96 we find the Duchess of Norfolk soliciting the influence of John Paston Esq., at a county election. It is thought right necessarie,' she tells him, 'for divers causes pt my Lord have at this tyme in the p'lment suche p'sones as longe unto him and be of his menyall s'vaunts wherin we conceyve yo good will and diligence shall be right expedient.' The 'menyall s'vaunts' were 'our right wel-belovid cossin and s'vaunts John Howard and Syr Roger Chambirlayn.' In vol. ii. p. 98 is a letter to the bailiff of Maldon recommending the election of Sir John Paston.-See also, Freeman, Growth of Eng. Const. p. 197.

2 Rot. Parl. 2 Ric. II. iii. 62.

3 Hallam, Midd. Ages, iii. 85.

a conditional grant of a subsidy; the Duke of Bedford and other lords having subsequently declared in Parliament, with the advice of the judges, and others learned in the law, that the said subsidy was to be at all events collected and levied for the King's use, notwithstanding any condition in the grant. But these were merely occasional exceptions to the admitted legal rule. In the same Parliament the Commons, in making a fresh grant, not only renewed the former conditions, but appropriated the supply, declaring that 'it ne no part thereof be beset ne dispensed to no other use, but only in and for the defense of the said roialme.' Similar precautions had been taken in the grants made to Henry IV. In the 6th year of his reign (1404) the Commons granted a large subsidy on condition that it should be expended for the defence of the kingdom according to the form and extent of the grant, and not otherwise, and two treasurers of war, Thomas, Lord Furnivall, and Sir John Pelham, were appointed and sworn in Parliament to receive it, and account to the Commons at the next Parliament.3 Thus, conditional grants, appropriation of supplies, and examination of accounts became the established usage.

Dependence The dependence of supplies on the redress of grievances of supply on originated under Richard II. It had previously been redress of grievances. usual for the King not to answer petitions until the last day of the session, when the supplies had of course been granted. The attempt to invert this order of proceeding had been declared by Richard II.'s judges to be high treason. But in the 2nd of Henry IV. the Commons again endeavoured to secure this important lever for the application of parliamentary power. The King resisted firmly, and the Commons gave way for the time, but the practice gradually gained ground.

First colli

sion between

In 1407 (9 Henry IV.) a proceeding took place which is

1 Rot. Parl. iv. 301.

2 Id. p. 302.

3 Id. iii. 546.

4 Id. p. 453.

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