CHAPTER IX. PARLIAMENT UNDER THE LANCASTRIAN AND (A.D. 1399-1485.) HENRY IV., HENRY V., HENRY VI., EDWARD IV., EDWARD V., RICHARD III. UNDER the Lancastrian kings the Parliament was occu- The Lanpied rather in the consolidation and regulation of the castrian period: results of former contests with the Crown than in the its charac acquisition of any new fundamental rights. The Com-teristics. mons 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. Increased importance of the Commons. Taxation: grants, ap 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 growing importance of the popular assembly is proved by the attempts which were now systematically made by the Crown and the nobility, to influence the elections in boroughs as well as in countics. 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 Instances of illegal taxation are very rare under the conditional Lancastrian kings. Under Richard II. the system of propriation forced loans, of which we find the Commons complaining of supplie for the first time in the 2nd year of his reign, had been of accounts. very extensively made use of, but the Lancastrian kings examination 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 clectors, 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 t 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 ChamLirlayn.' 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. 4 Kot. 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. Thus, conditional grants, appropriation of supplies, and examination of accounts became the established usage. The dependance of supplies on the redress of grievances Dependence of supply on originated under Richard II. It had previously been redress of usual for the King not to answer petitions until the last grievances. 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. In 1407 (9 Henry IV.) a proceeding took place which is First colli sion between the two Houses. bills must originate in the Commons. The King ought not to notice matters Parliament. interesting both as the first instance of a collision between the two Houses, and as the earliest authority for what are now two well-known axioms of parliamentary law, viz.: (1) All money That all money bills must originate in the House of Commons, and (2), that the King ought not to take notice of matters debated in Parliament, until a decision be come to by both Houses, and such decision be regularly brought before him. It appears that the Lords, in the King's presence, had held a debate on the state of the kingdom, tenting in and in answer to his demands, had specified certain subsidies as being requisite for the national defence. The King then requested the Commons to send a deputation to the Lords' House to hear and report to their fellows what they should have in command from the King, 'to the end that they might take the shortest course to comply with the intention of the said Lords.' Twelve of the Commons accordingly attended and made their report to the rest of the Lower House, who were thereupon 'greatly disturbed. at it, saying and affirming it to be much to the prejudice and derogation of their liberties.' 'And after that our lord the King had heard this,' the entry on the roll proceeds, 'not willing that anything should be done at present, or in time to come, that might anywise turn against the liberty of the Estate for which they are come to Parliament,1 nor against the liberties of the Lords,-wills and grants, and declares, by the advice and assent of the Lords, in manner following that it shall be lawful for the Lords to commune amongst themselves in this present Parliament, and in every 1407 1 The true position of the House of Commons as not being in itself an Estate of the Realm but the representative of the Estate of the Commons of England, is here expressed. In the same way, the knights, citizens, and burgesses assembled in the Parliament of 1406 (7 Hen. IV.) which settled the succession to the crown, are described as the 'procurators and attorneys of all the counties, cities, and boroughs, and of the whole people of the kingdom.' Although only elected by a portion of the population they were regarded as in effect procurators and attorneys for the whole. At this period the Parliamentary franchise was at its maximum; under Henry VI. it sank to its miniSubsequent extensions of the suffrage have been merely attempts to render the essentially representative character of the Commons' House more real and national. mum. other in time to come, in the absence of the King, of the state of the realm, and of the remedy necessary for the same. And that in like manner it shall be lawful for the Commons, on their part, to commune together of the state and remedy aforesaid. Provided always that the Lords on their part, and the Commons on their part, shall not make any report to our said lord the King of any grant by the Commons granted, and by the Lords assented to, nor of the communications of the said grant, before the Lords and Commons shall be of one assent and one accord in such matters, and then in manner and form accustomed, that is to say, by the mouth of the Speaker of the Commons, in order that the Lords and Commons may have their will (lour gree) of our said lord the King." Х assume the Statutes Bils. 1414 Originally, not only grants of money but, as we have Petitions seen, almost all statutes originated in the proceedings of form of the House of Commons. The practice of drawing up the complete statutes from the petitions and answers after the session of un ier the Parliament had closed, led to the commission of frequent name of frauds on the part of the king's officers, who often entered Acts of Parliament on the rolls, differing materially from what the Commons had petitioned for, and the King granted. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries many attempts were made by the Commons, from time to time, to remedy this abuse. In 1414 (2nd Henry V.) they presented a petition to the King, which is not only important on account of its subject matter, but interesting as the earliest instance in which the House of Commons adopted the English language in their petitions. After asserting that it had ever been their liberty and freedom that there should be no statute or law made unless with their assent, the Commons procced: Consideringe that the Comune of youre lond, the whiche that is, and ever hath be, a membre of youre Parlement, ben as well assenters as peticioners, that 1 Rot. Parl. iii. 611. Hallam, Midd. Ages, iii. 90. As early as 1363, the Chancellor addressed the Parliament in English in his opening address. Rot. Parl. ii. 283. |