or go out of the kingdom, by assent of his baronage, and it should be necessary to appoint a guardian of the realm, such guardian ought to be appointed by common consent of the baronage in parliament.

"No new customs or maletolts, or enhancement of the old, should be taken of merchants against the Great Charter, the franchises of the city of London, and without the assent of the baronage. The king should make the chancellor, chief justices, treasurer, chancellor and chief baron of the Exchequer (and several other specified officers), by the advice of the baronage in parliament; and if it should be necessary to appoint any such officers when there was no parliament, the king should do it by the advice of those about him, until there should be a parliament.

"The king should hold a parliament once in every year, or twice if there should be need, and in convenient places; and in those places, pleas that have been delayed should be recorded and determined; and bills should be delivered and ended in parliament according to law and reason.

"Money should not be altered without great occasion, and then by the common advice of the baronage in parliament."

The ordinances were the act of a parliament to which the commons were not summoned; and in referring to the advice and consent of the baronage as alone necessary, they showed a disregard of acknowledged principles. But this irregularity did not long remain unredressed. The king, in the fifteenth year of his reign, recalled the Despencers, raised an army, and recovered his liberty of action, by the defeat and death of the Earl of Lancaster, in a battle fought at Burton-upon-Trent. He afterwards called a parliament, at which the commons attended, and a statute was passed which re-asserted, not only the authority of the king, but the joint authority of the lords and commons. It declared that "all manner of ordinances or provisions made by sub

1 Rot. Parl., 5 Edward II. Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. pp. 157, 158. Peers' Report, vol. i. p. 259.

1327.]

DEPOSITION OF EDWARD II.

89

jects against the power or estate of the king, or against the estate of the Crown, shall be void, and of no avail or force whatever." The statute concludes with a declaration of the proper authority in such matters, namely:

"But the matters which are to be established for the estate of our lord the king, and of his heirs, and for the estate of the realm, and of the people, shall be treated, accorded, and established in parliaments by our lord the king; and by the assent of the prelates, earls and barons, and the commonalty of the realm; according as it hath been heretofore accustomed."

These comprehensive terms left no room for doubt, that all matters which were the subject of legislation, and not taxation merely, were under the control of parliament so constituted; and that no other power had authority to change the law of the land.

The earls and barons first obtained the appellation of 'peers of the land' in this reign. It appears in an instrument by which the Despencers, father and son, favourites of Edward II., were exiled from the realm in the fourteenth of his reign. The prelates, although parties to that instrument, were not included in the appellation.2

year

The parliament exercised the highest and extreme power against monarchy, by deposing King Edward II. In 1327, and the twentieth year of his reign, his queen Isabella, and her son, afterwards Edward III., with armed men, landed at Harwich from Flanders, and were joined by several earls, barons, and prelates, with the object of removing from the king his favourites the Despencers. The king fled to and was captured in Wales. The great seal was taken from him, and was used to summon a parliament in the king's name; at which articles were exhibited against him, accusing him of inability to govern, being led and governed by others, who gave him evil counsel,-of neglect of the business of the realm, and disregard of his coronation oath. He was therefore deposed; but he was prevailed upon formally to 1 15 Edw. II., Statutes of the Realm, A.D. 1322. Idem, vol. i. p. 181.

2

resign the crown to his son. The parliament renounced their homage and fealty; the high steward broke his staff, and declared all the king's officers discharged from his service, as if the king were actually dead.'

Edward III. was but fourteen years old when he was proclaimed king in 1326. The parliament which deposed his father was continued for a month, during which the king was sworn, and guardians were appointed to act during his minority. Many important principles of constitutional government were established in his reign. Parliament was frequently consulted on foreign affairs. At the parliament which met in 1332 (7 Edward III.), the chancellor announced that the king had received a message from the king of France to join an expedition to the Holy land, and the king desired the advice of parliament whether it was proper to join this expedition or not. He also required the advice. of parliament how peace might be kept, and rioters be chastised and restrained from their wickedness. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the proctors of the clergy withdrew, because it did not properly belong to their function to be present at criminal debates.2

Another parliament was called in the same year. The Bishop of Winchester stated that it had been summoned for the affairs of Ireland, to which the king had intended to go, to stop the progress of the rebels; and thereupon the prelates, earls, and deacons, " et autres grantz du parlement," were charged to advise the king. The parliament advised the king to send troops and money to Ireland, and proceeded to grant an aid to support their advice; the prelates by themselves, the earls and barons by themselves, and the knights of counties by themselves. It is expressed to be given, "because the king could not do the things proposed without being aided by his people, therefore the said pre

1 Parliamentary or Constitutional History of England, 2nd edition, 1772, vol. i. p. 222. This will be the Parliamentary History referred to, unless special reference be made to another.

2 Idem, 221.

1327.]

TAXATION BY PARLIAMENT.

91

lates, earls and barons, and the knights of the counties, "et tote la Cõe," granted to the king the fifteenth penny, to be levied of the "coalte." And the king, at the request of the same, in ease of his people, granted that the commissions lately made to certain persons assigned to set tallages on cities, towns, and desmesnes throughout England, should be immediately repealed; and that in time to come he would not set such tallage, except as it hath been done in the time of his ancestors, and as he might lawfully do.'

On the third day of the same parliament, Le Scrop, on the part of the king, demanded the advice of the "grantz" (prelates and barons), and also of the knights, whether the king should remain until the business of the parliament should be finished, or immediately go into the north. They advised that the king should immediately go. In this proceeding the representatives of the cities and boroughs seem to have borne no part.2

The business of the parliament having been adjourned in consequence of the king's absence, it met at York, in December, 1332. In this parliament we find the " Gentz de la Cõe," or the representatives of cities and boroughs, treated with more consideration; and we perceive something like an approach to deliberation in separate houses, and subsequent concurrence. Le Scrop stated that the parliament was summoned to have the advice of the king's good people and lieges of his kingdom, prelates, and others, on the affairs of Scotland; and he charged the several orders, including

1 Rot. Parl., Edward III., p. 66. Peers' Report, vol. i. p. 304.

Rot. Parl., Edward III., App. p. 446. Peers' Report, vol. i. p. 306. Instances of the kings or their ministers consulting the parliament on peace or war (matters which belong to the executive power) might be given in every successive reign, from Edward I. to Henry VIII. These will be found collected in a treatise on the Antiquity and Dignity of Parliaments,' written by Sir Robert Cotton, printed in 1679, to prove "that the Kings of England have been pleased usually to consult, in the Great Council, of marriage, peace, and war, with their Peers and Commons in Parliament." It will be found in the Harleian Miscellany, vol. viii. p. 216.

the "Gentz de la Cõe," that they should give their advice. It is then recorded that the prelates with the clergy by themselves, the earls and barons by themselves, and "Chivalers des Countez et Gentz de la Cõe" by themselves, treated of the business till the Friday following; and then the prelates by themselves, the earls and barons by themselves, the knights of the counties by themselves, and then all in. common, gave an answer to the king that, without the assistance of several prelates and other grantz who were not present, they did not dare to advise the king; and they requested him to continue the parliament to the octaves of St. Hilary, and to charge the absent prelates and grantz to be at York at that time, to which the king agreed.'

But there had not yet appeared in the several constituent parts of the parliament any trace of the power subsequently acquired of negativing the deliberations and resolutions of each other; on the contrary, it appears that with respect to taxation, which was the principal subject considered in the early parliaments, and for a long time the only one in which the representatives of the people were allowed to interfere, each order in parliament considered the question with reference only to its own community and its interests; and they frequently differed in the ratio in which they submitted to be taxed. A curious result of such distinct and independent deliberation appears on the rolls of a parliament held in 1339 (13 Edward III.). The grantz, or the earls and barons, gave their answer in writing that they would give the king the tenth garb of corn of all sorts, of their demesne lands (except the lands of their bondsmen), the tenth fleece, and the tenth lamb of the next year, to be paid in two years; but they introduced their grievances, and stipulated for the abolition of the maletolt, or illegal custom of wool,—that it be no more levied; and that the wardship of lands which should come to the king's hands by the nonage of heirs should be delivered to the nearest in blood of the heir; com

1 Rot. Parl., Edward III., p. 67. Peers' Report, vol. i. p. 306.