such, Sir Thomas Hungerford, knight, called in the record "Mons Thomas de Hungerford, Chevaler, qi avoit les paroles pur les Communes d'Engleterre, en cest Parliament."

RICHARD II., son of the Black Prince, succeeded his grandfather in 1377, being eleven years of age. A Parliament was called in August, and Sir Peres de la Mare was appointed Speaker of the House of Commons; and guardians were appointed for the king.

The commons prayed the king, that because the late King Edward was guided by evil counsellors, as had been authentically proved, they might be removed from all the king's councils; and that other fit persons might be put in their places. They also petitioned that, during the king's minority, the chancellor, the high-treasurer, the chief justices, and other high officers, should be made in parliament.

In 1380 (4 Richard II.) the commons attempted to make the clergy subject to taxation in parliament. They proposed that if the clergy would support a third of the charge, they would grant £100,000; and they suggested that the clergy should hasten the meeting of their convocation, and take upon them the charge of thirty thousand marks. The clergy answered, that their grant was never made in parliament, nor ought to be; and that the laity ought not to, nor could, bind the clergy; and the clergy ought not to, nor could, bind the laity. The clergy prayed the king to preserve the liberty of Holy Church; and the commons were obliged to confine their taxation to the laity only; granting a poll-tax on all the laity, males and females, of the age of fifteen years, very beggars only excepted. This grant appears on the rolls as made by the lords and commons, not mentioning the prelates.

3

In this reign is found the first grant of tonnage and poundage. The statute which granted it4 states that upon the

1 Rot. Parl., 51 Edward III., vol. ii. p. 374.

2 Rot. Parl., Richard II., vol. iii. pp. 1–7.

3 Rot. Parl., Richard II., vol. iii. p. 98. Peers' Report, vol. i. p. 339. 45 Richard II., Statute 2, cap. iii., 1381.

1381.]

TONNAGE AND POUNDAGE.

99

proffer made in parliament by the mariners of the West, to make an army on the sea, to endure for two years, the lords and commons granted to the king a subsidy of two shillings, to take of every tun of wine to be brought within the realm of England; and also sixpence of the pound of all manner of merchandise to be brought out and coming within the realm, that is to say, of all manner of woollen cloths, as of all other merchandises, except wools, leather, and woolfells, over the customs and subsidies thereof due before this grant, for two years; so always the money be wholly applied upon the safe-keeping of the sea, and no part elsewhere.

The insurrection in 1381, of the lower orders, under Wat Tyler, was the principal business before the parliament of 5 Richard II. The king had, when under the influence of the tumult, granted letters-patent, enfranchising the villeins to a considerable extent. He submitted to the parliament, whether he should repeal the letters-patent, or complete the enfranchisement and manumission of the villeins. The lords and commons were unanimous for the repeal of the letterspatent, on the ground that the manumission was in disinherison of their rights; but the commons made a remonstrance against the conduct of the king, as the cause of the popular commotions, which appears on the rolls of parliament. They say, "that unless the administration of the kingdom were speedily reformed, the kingdom itself would be utterly lost, and ruined for ever." They complain of defects in the administration, as well about the king's person and his household, as in his courts of justice;-of oppression by the king's purveyors and others, who pay nothing for what they take, whereby and by subsidies and tallages raised upon them, and by the maintainers of suits, they are reduced to greater poverty and discomfort than ever they were before. "And to speak the real truth, these injuries lately done to the poorer commons, more than ever they suffered before, caused them to rise, and to commit the mischief done in their late riot." They pray the king, and the noble peers of the realm now assembled in parliament, to provide remedy and amend

ment; removing, as soon as they can be detected, evil ministers and counsellors, and putting in their stead the best and most sufficient."

A parliament met at Westminster in 1383, 6 Richard II., which was called upon to advise the king, whether he should go in person to the relief of the town of Ghent, in danger from the armies of the King of France; and if they advised the king to go, how to provide for such an expedition. The commons consulted together two or three days; but finding it, as they said, so great, and so highly affecting the king's person, they prayed his majesty to grant them certain lords, named by themselves, to treat with them about it. The peers whom the commons named, attended. This seems an approach to a conference between the two houses; but the rolls mention that "it was, and ought to be, in the election of the king, to assign such bishops and lords as he should think fit."2

Richard II. introduced the title of Marquis, as an order of nobility. Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was created by letters-patent Marquis of Dublin, in the eighth year of the king's reign. Subsequently, in the eleventh year of his reign, he created John Beuchamp, of Holt, a baron, by letterspatent. This is supposed to be the first creation of a baron by letters-patent. Prior to that time the peers enjoyed their titles and their seats in parliament by prescription, in respect of their baronial lands; or as having been summoned to parliament by the king's writ. The creation by letterspatent had the effect of confining the title, in its descent, to such heirs as were specified in the patent.3

At the Parliament which met in 1386 (10 Richard II.),

1 Rot. Parl., Richard II., p. 100. From this time we find little more of the villeins. Their manumission required neither the letters-patent of the king, nor an act of the parliament. The lords relaxed and gradually abandoned their right to their services; and when that was given up, the villeins were not distinguished, in condition, from their free fellow-subjects.

2 Rot. Parl., 6 Richard II., p. 2. 3 Peers' Report, vol. i.

p. 342.

1386.7

IMPEACHMENT OF A CHANCELLOR.

101

the commons impeached Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, the Lord Chancellor. Articles of impeachment were drawn up by the commons, and presented to the king and lords, as the supreme judicial tribunal, in the parliamentchamber. The king resented the impeachment, and withdrew to his palace at Eltham; but the commons were not intimidated. They resolved "that they neither could, nor by any means would, proceed in any business of parliament, or despatch so much as the least article of it, till the king should come and show himself in person amongst them, and remove Michael de la Pole from his office." The king invited them to send him forty of their members; but they, fearing treachery, sent a remonstrance to the king, by the hands of certain peers. They said "that we have it settled and confirmed in our ancient constitution, that the king ought to assemble the parliament once a year. And that if the king will estrange himself from parliament, and be absent forty days, it shall be lawful for them to return to their countries." Other messages passed, after which the king yielded, and removed Pole from his office of chancellor. The commons proceeded with their impeachment; the earl was arrested, and was sent close prisoner to Windsor Castle, but was soon afterwards released by the king.'

The parliament closed this reign, and exercised the extreme power of government, by the removal of Richard II. from the throne, and the election of Henry, Duke of Lancaster, to succeed him as king. The rolls of parliament describe the proceedings at great length;--the king's renunciation of the throne, for causes of inability and insufficiency by himself confessed; his absolution of the people from all allegiance, and his recommendation of the Duke of Lancaster as his successor.

The parliament pronounced sentence of

1 Parl. Hist., vol. i. pp. 417-425. Rot. Parl., 10 Richard II. The commons impeached several other persons in this parliament—a proof of their rising energy and power. The lords, as the supreme judicial tribunal, have continued to the present time to be the judges, in cases of impeachment by the commons.

deposition against him, and Henry claimed the vacant throne. The lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, as the three estates of the realm, accepted Henry as king, he disclaiming all right by conquest. The justices and other officers of state were sworn into their offices, and proclamation was made for his coronation. Procurators announced to Richard their acceptance of his resignation and his deposition; and renounced and gave back to him the homage and fealty formerly made to him.'

In connection with these proceedings a question arose which settled the jurisdiction of the House of Lords, solely, as a judicial court. At a new parliament, summoned by Henry IV., the king came to the parliament, and there, by assent of the lords spiritual and temporal, Richard, late King of England, was adjudged to perpetual imprisonment. To this proceeding the commons were not parties; and on the Monday following, the 3rd of November, the commons made. a protestation, and showed to the king, that, as the judg ments of parliament belonged solely to the king and the lords,—and not to the commons, unless the king pleased of his special grace to show them such judgments for their case,--that no record should be made in parliament concerning the commons, that they were or should be parties to any judgment given or to be given in parliament. To this it was answered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, by command of the king, that the commons were petitioners and demanders; and that the king and the lords, of all time, had had and ought to have, of right, the judgments in parliament, in manner as the commons had shown; save that in a statute to be made, or in grants and subsidies, or such things to be done for the common profit of the realm, the king would have especially their advice and assent; and this order of proceeding should be holden and kept in all time to come.2

On the rolls of the parliament of 1401 (2 Henry IV.) 1 Rot. Parl., 1 Henry IV., p. 416, 1399.

2 Rot. Parl., Henry IV., p. 427. Peers' Report, vol. i. p. 353.