1494.] THE STAR-CHAMBER. 163 as king, by many who found difficulty in getting over the divine right of James II.1 66 Another statute reconstituted the Court of Star-Chamber, which long afterwards exercised tyrannical authority over the community. It had existed many years before, as an appendage to the power of the king's council. It is described by Lord Bacon as one of the sagest and noblest institutions of the kingdom. For in the distribution of courts of ordinary justice (besides the high court of parlia ment) in which distribution the king's bench holdeth the pleas of the crown; the common-place, pleas civil; the exchequer, pleas concerning the king's revenue; and the chancery, the pretorian power for mitigating the rigour of the law, in case of extremity, by the conscience of a good man; there was, nevertheless, always reserved a high and pre-eminent power to the king's council in causes that might, in example or consequence, concern the state of the commonwealth; which, if they were criminal, the council used to sit in the chamber called the Star-chamber; if civil, in the white chamber, or Whitehall. And as the chancery had the pretorian power for equity, so the star-chamber had the censorian power for offences under the degree of capital."8 The act of Henry gave the judicial power to the chancellor and treasurer of England, for the time being, and keeper of the king's privy seal, or two of them, calling to them a bishop, and a temporal lord of the king's most honourable council, and the two chief-justices of the king's bench and common-place, for the time being, or other two justices in their absence. It declared the jurisdiction of the court to 1 Lord Macaulay's History, vol. ii. p. 18. 2 The judges declared in Chambers's case that the court of Star-chamber was not created by the statute 3 Henry VII., but was a court many years before, and one of the most high and honourable courts of justice. -Croke's Reports, vol. v. ch. i. p. 168.. 3 Bacon's Henry VII., p. 85. 4 We may anticipate here so far as to state that, by the statute 21 Henry VIII., cap. 20, the president of the king's council was added to the court of Star-chamber. It was also declared that the President of be over "unlawful maintenances, giving of liveries, signs and tokens, and retainders by indentures, promises, oaths, writings, or otherwise other embraceries of his subjects; untrue demeanings of sheriff's in making of panels, and other untrue returns, by taking of money, by juries, by great riots, and unlawful assemblies; whereby the policy and good rule of the realm was almost subdued." It declared the mode of proceeding to be," by bill or information put to the chancellor for the king, or any other (a subject); whereupon the court had authority to call the misdoers before them by writ, or privy seal, and to examine them and others, by their discretion, by whom the truth might be known; and such as they found therein defective, to punish them after their de merits, after the form and effect of statutes thereof made, in like manner and form, as they should and ought to be punished, as if they were thereof convict after the due order of law."1 The constitution of this famous court made it easy for it to acquire the tyrannical power it afterwards exercised, and to overstep the "due order of law," to which the act restricted it. Its jurisdiction, as expressed in the act, too, seems very undefined. Lord Bacon's explanation shows that it was applicable to inchoate and incomplete crimes: "This court of star-chamber is compounded of good elements; for it consisteth of four kinds of persons,-counsellors, peers, prelates, and chief judges: it discerneth also principally of four kinds of causes; forces, frauds, crimes various of stellionate, and the inchoations or middle acts towards crimes capital or heinous, not actually committed or perpetrated. But that which was principally aimed at by this act was force, and the two chief supports of force, combination of multitudes, and maintenance or headship of great persons." 2 the council should be associated in the naming of sheriffs, and settlings of prices of wines, and all acts appointed to be done by the chancellor, treasurer, and keeper of the king's privy seal, for the time being. 3 Henry VII., cap. 1. 2 Bacon's Henry VII., p. 85. 1494.] HIS LAWS. 165 Henry had two sons, Arthur, and Henry, Duke of York. On the 14th of November, 1501, Arthur was married to the lady Katherine, fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, king and queen of Spain; Arthur being about fifteen years of age, and Katherine rather older. Arthur died on the 2nd of April, 1502. On the 18th of February following, Henry was created Prince of Wales, and Earl of Chester and Flint: the dukedom of Cornwall devolved to him by statute. At twelve years of age he was contracted with the Princess Katherine; "the secret providence of God ordaining that marriage to be the occasion of great events and changes."2 In the same year the lady Margaret, the king's eldest daughter, was espoused to James, King of Scotland, through which marriage the crown, in the course of time, devolved upon the Stuart kings. The Parliament gave him an aid of £36,000 for her marriage-portion.3 Lord Bacon eulogizes Henry for his good laws. He describes him "as the best lawgiver to this nation since King Edward I." Of these laws none besides those that have been mentioned relate to public government; and few, if any of the others, remain at the present day, except the statute which conferred a sort of constitutional right, on "such persons as are poor, to sue in formâ pauperis,” in the courts of law and equity, without payment of fees, and to have counsel and attorneys assigned to them by the courts, "without any reward for their counsel, help, and business. in the same."4 1 Lord Bacon says 'eighteen,' but Miss Strickland, on the authority of a Spanish MS., states that Katherine was born on the 15th of December, 1185, therefore not quite sixteen at her marriage. See note to Bacon's Henry VII., p. 212. Bacon's Henry VII., passim. 4 Bacon's Henry VII., p. 92. 3 Parl. Hist., vol. ii. p. 458. 5 11 Henry VII., cap. 12. CHAPTER X. HENRY VIII. A.D. 1509-1547. Reigned 38 years. Henry's Power and Popularity.-His first Five Parliaments.-Tonnage and Poundage.--He disregarded Laws of Taxation.-Wolsey's Demand on the House of Commons.-Forced Loans.-Henry's policy sprang from the Reformation.-Defender of the Faith.-His Decision between Clergy and Laity.-His Contest with the Pope.-His Application for a Bull to dissolve his Marriage. The Pope appointed a Trial before his Legate.-The Trial.-Its Abandonment.-Cranmer.— His Sentence of Divorce.-Its Effect at Rome.-Parliament of 1529.Statutes passed in Diminution of Clerical Privileges.-In Reduction of Fees on Probates of Wills.-On Mortuaries.-Against Pluralities. -Parliament of 1531.-Statute to restrain Citation to Ecclesiastical Courts. First Statute against the Pope.-Against Payment of Firstfruits to Rome.-Session of 1523.-Statute on Appeals to Rome.— Session of 1533-4.-Statute of Submission of the Clergy.-Parliament of 1533.-Statute repudiating the Pope, and giving Appointment of Bishops to the King.-All Payments to Rome abolished.-Act concerning the Succession.-Adjustment of the Quarrel between the King and the Pope frustrated by Accident.-The Pope's Sentence declaring the Marriage with Katherine valid.-Parliament of 1534.Statute declaring the King Head of the Church.-Oath of Obedience. First-fruits and Tenths granted to Henry.-Parliament of 1535.-Dissolution of the smaller Monasteries.-Of the large Monasteries. Constitutional effect thereof.-Act for Abolishing Diversity of Opinions.-Henry excommunicated, but refuses to return to Rome. --Civil Constitution.-Court of Wards.-House of Lords.-New Bishops. Chester made a Parliamentary County.-Wales Incor porated with England.-Royal Prerogatives declared.-Unconstitutional Laws.-General Statutes. HENRY VIII. succeeded his father, on the 22nd of April, 1509-1523.] PARLIAMENTS AND SUPPLIES. 167 1509, at about the age of eighteen, and his marriage with Katherine was solemnized in the following June. He was the heir of the union of the White and Red Roses, so that there was no discontented party left in the kingdom. He inherited also from his father a vast sum of money, accumulated through the instrumentality of Empson and Dudley; and Henry requited their services, yielded for the personal gains and supported by the personal acquiescence of his father, by arraigning and executing them for high treason. He thus acquired popularity with his people, who had suffered through their extortions; and some redress was offered by acts in Henry's first parliament, by which Empson and Dudley were attainted, their property confiscated, and parties injured by untrue inquisitions through their procurement were allowed to traverse or contest them.1 The first five parliaments of Henry, covering the first twenty years of his reign, were perfectly barren of constitutional laws, unless we admit as one, an act for enforcing better attendance in the commons house of parliament. It appears that "the knights, citizens, and burgesses, long time before the end of the parliament, of their own authority, departed and went home, whereby great and weighty matters were many times delayed." It was provided that no member should depart, or absent himself, until the parliament was fully ended or prorogued, except with the license of the speaker and the house, upon pain of losing his wages.2 Henry carried on his government throughout the whole period of his reign with little regard to the law that the people should not be taxed without consent of parliament, whenever it interfered with his will. His first parliament granted him tonnage and poundage for his life; but with a proviso "that these grants be not taken in example to the 1 The Journals of the House of Lords commence in this reign, superseding the Rolls of Parliament. The Journals of the Commons commence in the first year of Edward IV. 2 6 Henry VIII., cap. 16. |