С А

XVII.

1399..

a true picture of the ftate of the kingdom. The CHA P. laws had been fo feebly executed, even during the long, active, and vigilant reign of Edward III, that no fubject could truft to their protection. Men openly affociated themfelves, under the patronage of fome great baron, for their mutual defence. They wore public badges, by which their confederacy was diftinguifhed. They fupported each other in all quarrels, iniquities, extortions, murders, robberies, and other crimes. Their chief was more their fovereign than the king himself; and their own band was more connected with them than their country. Hence the perpetual turbulence, diforders, factions, and civil wars of thofe times: Hence the small regard paid to a character or the opinion of the public: Hence the large difcretionary prerogatives of the crown, and the danger which might have enfued from the too great limitation of them. If the king had poffeffed no arbitrary powers, while all the nobles affumed and exercifed them, there must have enfued an abfolute anarchy in the state.

ONE great mifchief, attending thefe confederacies, was the extorting from the king pardons for the most enormous crimes. The parliament often endeavoured, in the laft reign, to deprive the prince of this prerogative; but, in the present, they were content with an abridgment of it.. They enacted, that no pardon for rapes or for murder from malice prepenfe fhould be valid, unless the crime were particularly specified in it ***,

102

XVII. 1399.

CIA P. There were alfo fome other circumftances requir ed for paffing any pardon of this kind: An excellent law; but ill obferved, like most laws that thwart the manners of the people, and the prevailing cuftoms of the times.

Ir is eafy to obferve, from these voluntary affociations among the people, that the whole force of the feudal system was in a manner diffolved, and that the English had nearly returned in that particular to the fame fituation, in which they ftood before the Norman conquest. It was indeed impoffible, that that fyftem could long fubfift under the perpetual revolutions, to which landed property is every where subject. When the great feudal baronies were first erected, the lord lived in opulence in the midst of his vaffals: He was in a fituation to protect and cherish and defend them: The quality of patron naturally united itself to that of fuperior: And thefe two principles of authority mutually supported each other. But when, by the various divifions and mixtures of property, a man's fuperior came to live at a diftance from him, and could no longer give him fhelter or countenance; the tie gradually became more fictitious than real: New connexions from vicinity or other caufes were formed: Protection was fought by voluntary fervices and attachment: The appearance of valor, fpirit, abilities in any great man extended his intereft very far: And if the fovereign were deficient in thefe qualities, he was no lefs, if not more expofed to the ufurpations of the arifto

cracy, than even during the vigor of the feudal c HAP. fyftem.

THE greatest novelty introduced into the civil government during this reign was the creation of peers by patent. Lord Beauchamp of Holt was the firft peer, that was advanced to the house of lords in this manner. The practice of levying benevolences is also first mentioned in the prefent reign.

108

THIS prince lived in a more magnificent manner than perhaps any of his predeceffors or fucceffors. His household confifted of 10,000 perfons: He had 300 in his kitchen; and all the other offices were furnished in proportion proportion . It must be remarked, that his enormous train had tables fupplied them at the king's expence, according to the mode of that age. Such prodigality was probably the fource of many exactions, by purveyors and was one chief reafon of the public difcontents.

108

Harding: This poet fays, that he fpeaks from the authority of a clerk of the green cloth.

XVIL 1399.

TO THE

THIRD VOLUME.

NOTE [A], p. 28.

RYMER; vol. ii. p. 216. 845.

YMER, vol. ii. p. 216. 845. There cannot be the leatt queftion, that the homage ufually paid by the kings. of Scotland was not for their crown, but for fome other territory. The only queftion remains, what that territory was? It was not always for the earldom of Huntingdon, nor the honor of Penryth; because we find it fometimes done at a time when thefe poffeffions were not in the hands of the kings of Scotland. It is probable, that the homage was performed in general terms without any particular fpecification of territory; and this inaccuracy had proceeded either from fome difpute between the two kings about the territory and fome oppofite claims, which were compromised by the general homage, or from the fimplicity of the age, which employed few words in every tranfaction. To prove this we need but look into the letter of king Richard, where he refigns the homage of Scotland, referving the usual homage. His words are, Sæpedictus IV. Rex ligius homo nofter deveniat de omnibus terris de quibus anteceffores fui antecefforum noftrorum ligii bomines fuerunt, et nobis atque hæredibus noftris fidelitatem jurarunt. Rymer, vol. i. p. 65. These gencral terms were probably copied from the ufual form of the homage itself.

It is no proof that the kings of Scotland poffeffed no lands or baronies in England, because we cannot find them in the imperfect hiftories and records of that age. For inftance, it clearly appears from another paffage of this very letter of Richard, that the Scottish king held lands both in the county of Huntingdon and elsewhere in