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 separate 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 regard 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.

2 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 fifteenth 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 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.

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 parlia

ment."

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.

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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."1

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 year of his reign. The prelates, although parties to that instrument, were not included in the appellation.2

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. 2 Idem, vol. i. p. 181.

90

EDWARD III.

The parliament renounced resign the crown to his son. 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 The Archof parliament how peace might be kept, and rioters be chastised and restrained from their wickedness. bishop 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

The

Another parliament was called in the same year. 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.