1297.]

PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT.

83

and accustomed." By this statute the commons, as well as the lords, acquired the right to be consulted on laws imposing taxation on the people; and no such law could afterwards be made without their consent. The exceptions referred to were the feudal aids, and prises of wines and merchandise at the ports, settled by ancient custom. It left to parliament all other taxation, which was usually made by granting a tenth or fifteenth, or other proportionable part of every man's movables; or by subsidies, which were a tax on land and movables; and sometimes even by votes of actual movables, such as wool, in kind.

The interference of parliament was sought in public and in private matters by petitions to the king. "Its functions (says Palgrave) were not only legislative, they were also judicial. It was the king's great and extraordinary court of justice, in which the complaints of the commonwealth or any part of it, or of individuals, might be discussed or heard; and in which the king was to grant redress when the courts were unable, or refused; and frequent parliaments were required, because justice could not be administered without these assemblies." Petitions of a public nature were dealt with by parliament in its legislative capacity; those of a private nature were decided upon and announced in parliament by persons specially appointed for the purpose, called Triers of Petitions, who were usually the chancellor, judges, and other law members of the king's council, without any interference of the general body of lords and commons. The petitions were entered upon the parliament-rolls, with the answers thereto; and to petitions of a public nature the king's assent was added, "Le Roy le veut," 'the King wills it so.' The petition then acquired the force of law, and was entered on the statute-roll; and, after

1 Essay on the Original Authority of the King's Council, by Sir F. Palgrave.

2 Peers' Report, vol. i. p. 245. Triers of Petitions are now formally appointed by the House of Lords at the opening of every parliament, although their functions have long ago ceased.

wards, the tenour of it was affixed to proclamation writs, directed to the several sheriffs, commanding them to proclaim the statute as law, in their several counties,—a ceremony, however, not essential to the validity of the law.

The rolls of parliament, held at Westminster on the Sunday after the Feast of St. Mathias, 33 Edward I., afford an instance of the course of proceeding with regard to petitions. The entry purports that it was ordained by the King that Sir Gilbert de Roubiny, Master Johan de Caam, Sir Johan de Kirkeby, and Master Johan de Bussh, should receive all the petitions to be delivered at the then next parliament; and upon this, proclamation was made by the king's command, in the great hall of Westminster, in the Chancery, and before the justices of the Bench, at the Exchequer, in the Guildhall, London, and in Westcheap, for delivering of petitions accordingly before a certain day.' In a later parliament, held in the sixth of Edward III., it is explained that the petitions were not received and answered at that parliament, because the prelates "et autres grantz," and also "gentz de ley," who could try and answer such petitions, were not come to parliament.2

It was a very early practice to declare, at the opening of parliament, the purposes for which it was assembled; and also to open parliament (as we now style it) by commission. An early instance appears on the roll of the parliament held at Carlisle, in the thirty-fifth of Edward I. The king remained at Lanercost, and sent to Carlisle the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, his treasurer, and Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who were authorized by letters-patent, entered on the roll in the French language, to address the parliament in the king's name. But if the king were present, he named a person to address the parliament without a commission. On the rolls of the parliament of 9 Edward II., it appears that, the king being present, the causes of summoning were declared by William Inge, a justice of the 1 Rotuli Parliamentorum, 33 Edward I. 2 Rot. Parl., Edward III., p. 67.

3 Idem.

1307.]

VOTING BY PROXY.

85

Common Bench. It was usual (especially for persons in holy orders) to preface the speech with a text from Scripture, applicable to the intended subject.

Voting by proxy came early into practice; but at first the privilege appears to have belonged only to the bishops and clergy, and not, as now, also to the temporal lords. On the roll of the parliament of 35 Edward I., is a list of the procurators or proxies sent by the bishops and abbots to the parliament at Carlisle. Procurators were not then necessarily persons entitled to sit in parliament in their own right; for all the procurators in the instance given were rectors, canons, or clergymen, except the procurator for the Bishop of St. David's, and he was a knight. The Abbot of Combe sent no proxy, but, instead thereof, his letterspatent, by which he promised that he would hold himself bound by and grateful for anything which the King in the said parliament should profitably decree to be ordained.2

The clergy at this time would not submit to be taxed by the laity in parliament. The popes pretended that all attempts of laymen, without their permission, to impose taxes on the clergy, were derogatory to the authority of the Apostolic See. Pope Boniface, by a Bull, dated in 24 Edward I., 1296, prohibited payment by the clergy of any such taxes, either on their own goods, or on the goods of their respective churches, without the authority of the Apostolic See; and declared that all emperors, kings, princes, or others, who should impose, exact, or receive such taxes or assist therein, should incur the sentence of excommunication; and that those who should pay should incur the same penalty. Such a decree could not be contended against; and it was necessary to form a separate assembly of the clergy. In the writs of summons to parliament, addressed to the archbishops and bishops, there was inserted, whenever the king

1 Rot. Parl., 9 Edward II., 351 a.

2 "Se ratum et gratum habiturum quicquid in dicto Parliamento Rex decreverit salubriter ordinandum." (Rot. Parl., 35 Edward I., P. 190.

required a convention of the clergy, a clause, called from its first words the Præmunientes' clause, directing them to summon the deans or heads of chapters, archdeacons, and proctors, to form a representation of the clergy in a sepa rate convention, or convocation.'

A specimen of the external humility of the Commons is found in a petition which appears on the rolls of parliament in the second year of Edward II., and which is also a very early instance of complaint of grievances. "The good people of the kingdom, who are come hither to parliament, pray our Lord the King that he will, if it please him, have regård to his poor subjects, who are much aggrieved, by reason that they are not governed as they should be; especially as to the articles of the Great Charter; and for this, if it please him, they pray remedy." They then specify their articles of grievance, eleven in number; amongst which the following show the disregard of common justice, and of the laws of Magna Charta that then prevailed. The king's purveyors seize great quantities of victuals without payment; new customs are set on wines, clothing, and other imports; the collectors of the king's dues in towns and fairs take more than is lawful; men are delayed in civil suits by writs of protection; and felons escape punishment by procuring charters of pardon.2

The king promised redress of the grievances set forth in the petition, and the commons granted him an aid of a twenty-fifth of their movables.3 That grant was made by them alone, apart from the lords and knights, and to affect only the property of their own order. In the first year of Edward II. there is a previous proof of the want of unity, at that time, in the several constituent bodies of parliament. The king obtained a grant from the clergy of a fifteenth; 1 Peerage Rep. vol. i. p. 215.

* See vol. ii. of Middle Ages, by Mr. Hallam, who has translated the whole petition from the Norman-French, p. 172.

3 Rot. Parl., Edward II., App. pp. 443-444. Peers' Report, vol. i. p. 258.

1312.]

ORDINANCES.-EDWARD II.

87

from the earls, barons, and knights, of a twentieth; and from the citizens and burgesses, of a fifteenth of all their movables.1

In 1312, the fifth year of Edward II., a confederation of the barons, bound by oath to compel the king to expel his favourite, Piers Gaveston, led, like former similar confederations against King John and Henry III., to the advance of constitutional government. A parliament assembled at Westminster, which consisted only of prelates, earls, and barons; citizens and burgesses not having been summoned. It represented in strong terms the disorders produced by the imprudence of the king's conduct; and the king was prevailed upon to issue letters-patent, in which he authorized the prelates, earls, and barons to choose a certain number of their order" to ordain and establish the estate of the king's household, and of his kingdom; so as their ordinances should be made to the honour of God, to the honour and profit of the Church and king, and to the profit of the people, according to right and reason, and the oath which the king had made at his coronation."2

The Ordainers (as the peers appointed were called) made certain ordinances, which were confirmed by the king's letters-patent. They also appear on the parliament-roll, in the form of charters from the king, which was, as we have seen, the usual mode of granting concessions of the royal prerogatives. Although the ordinances were annulled after Edward recovered his power, by a statute passed in the fif teenth year of his reign, yet some of the ordinances-especially those which here follow-could not fail to leave their impression as constitutional principles, although modified in modern times by the effect of our system of parliamentary government::

"The king should not go out of his kingdom, or make war against any one, without the common consent of the baronage. And if the king should make war against any,

1

1 Prynne, vol. ii. pp. 6-8. Peers' Report, vol. i. p. 256.

2 Rot. Parl., 5 Edward II., p. 281. Peers' Report, vol. i. p. 259.