A History and Defence of Magna Charta/Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
Shewing that the yearly parliaments were freſh
and freſh.
There are ſeveral ways of proving that there was a new election every year. They tell me, there are writs extant for new elections four-ſcore years ſucceſſively, where there are about ſix wanting. What if they had been all loſt, embezzled, or made away? What then, is our conſtitution loſt, when bundles of writs are loſt? No, I will go no further than this laſt letter, to ſhew that there is a great appearance, that while there were two parliaments in a year, the ſecond muſt be new called. Though I hate the word new, applied to parliament; for a parliament is a parliament, and our anceſtors would no more have dreamed of a ſtale or old parliament, than of an old moon cut out into Stars. I will cite the words of King Edward’s letter, dated the 19th of June, in the third of his reign; and when that is done, let the reader make his own Judgment upon them.
It was in the interval betwixt his Eaſter and his Michaelmas parliament. “But before we could put an end to that parliament, becauſe of the multitude of grievances which lay before them, your nuncio in the mean time, diligently ſolliciting your buſineſs, a great diſtemper, as it pleaſed God, befel me, which hindered the finiſhing of many other matters, and treating about the petition of the yearly tribute, which is a great grief to me: and ſo by reaſon of my ſaid illneſs (from which by the grace of God, in whoſe hands are the iſſues of life and death, I begin to recover) that parliament was diſſolved, and hereupon I could not treat with the prelates and peers aforeſaid, about this tribute.[1]”
From this long quotation, I ſhall only make this obſervation at preſent, That in this parliament begun in the octaves of Eaſter [perhaps upon May-day] there was a great deal of buſineſs done, and a great deal of buſineſs left undone; amongſt the reſt the pope’s, becauſe of the King’s ſickneſs, who thereupon could not give anſwers to bills or petitions; and that the nuncio’s petition was unanſwered went to the King’s heart. But upon occaſion of that ſickneſs it was, that the parliament was diſſolved, and the pope’s buſineſs hindered, to the King’s great regret. What, could not the King keep his parliament alive till the nineteenth of June, when he himſelf began to be well again, which is the date of the letter? It is no more than fifty days from their firſt ſitting down to the date of his letter; and yet, though he ſet his heart upon the buſineſs that lay before that parliament, it was diſſolved, and to ſtop this gap, he promiſes to call another parliament at Michaelmas. Then it ſeems they did not underſtand the method of prorogations, and it is unknown to me by what law it came in. If there be ſuch a law, I never minded it; for I am ſpeaking of the conſtitution, and not of innovations.
But I believe the true reaſon of the abrupt diſſolution of that ſummer parliament, in conjunction with the King’s ſickneſs, was this, That if they had been held till Michaelmas, though there was then to be another parliament, it muſt have been at the King’s charge. For I am of opinion, by what I have ſeen even as low as Richard the ſecond’s time, that the ſitting of a parliament was uſually forty days; and that the quarantain was not duly kept in this parliament, 3 Edward i. of the octaves of Eaſter. But there was a concern in holding a parliament above forty days about the knights’ and burgeſſes’ wages; as appears by the memorable record which is in Knyghton, p. 2682. being the meſſage ſent by both houſes to King Richard the ſecond at Eltham[2].
In ſhort they ſay they have an antient ſtatute for it, that in caſe the King wilfully abſent himſelf, and will not come to parliament, as having no care of vexing his people, nor regard of their great expences, after forty days they are free to go home, and the King has no wrong done him.
Now what is the meaning of theſe forty days, but that they had waited a juſt ſeſſion? And how ſhould the parliament-mens’ wages be otherwiſe adjuſted, when at the end of every parliament in thoſe times they were diſmiſſed, with deſiring them to ſue out their writs for their wages? And I leave it to the antiquaries, becauſe I am not now able to travel in that point, to confider how the ſeveral proportions of land which are allotted for the knights and burgeſſes in ſeveral counties for their wages, can be adjuſted without a certainty of the length of their ſeſſions.
But not a word of this is my preſent buſineſs, which was to ſhew, that parliaments by the conſtitution are not to be ſtale; as in a former reign one was retained about nineteen years with penſiens, and another for fewer years, with places and turning out of places; but if a parliament were corrupted neither of theſe ways, yet a ſtanding parliament will always ſtagnate, and be like a country-pond which is overgrown with ducks-meat. The worſt King, or at leaſt, one of them that ever the nation had, was ſo limited by the conſtitution, that he did not know how to compaſs a long parliament, and therefore he was fain to take other indirect ways to gain the ſame point as if he had one. It was Richard the ſecond; who, in the articles alledged againſt him, and confeſſed by him, let us know it was by influencing elections and falſe returns. The words as they ſtand in the rolls, 1 Henry IV. m. 20. are theſe[3]:
“19. Item, Although by ſtatute, and the cuſtom of his realm in the calling of every parliament in every the counties of England, his people ought to be free to chuſe and depute knights for the ſaid counties to be preſent in parliament, and to lay open their grievances, and to proſecute for remedies thereupon as they think fit; notwithſtanding, the ſaid King, that in his parliaments he might obtain his will which was raſh, often, directed his mandates to his ſheriffs, that they ſhould return certain perſons nominated by the King himſelf as knights of the ſhires; which knights indeed he could make pliable to him, as he very often did, ſometimes by various threats and terrors, and ſometimes by gifts, to conſent to thoſe things which were prejudicial to the realm, and extremely burdenſome to the people; and particularly to grant the ſame King the ſubſidy of wool during his life, and another, ſubſidy for certain years, thereby too much oppreſſing his people.”
Now if he could have made long parliaments, he need not have made uſe of theſe mean ſhifts. But he could make uſe of no other way, becauſe parliaments, as I ſaid, were freſh and freſh, and antiquity knew no other. And if any man can make out of this authentic record, that it was any otherwiſe, than ſo many parliaments, ſo many elections, then I have done with be and reading.
- ↑ Sed antequam idem parliamento propter negotiorum multitudinem quæ reformationis remedio indigebant finem imponere valeremus, eodem capellano veſtro reſponſionem debitam ſibi fieri inſtanter poſtulante, quædam gravis nos invaſit, ſicut Domino placuit, infirmitas corporalis, quae perfectionem multorum aliorum negetiorum, et deliberationem petitionis cenſus annui ſupradicti, de quo dolemus non modicum, impedivit; ſicque cum occaſione infirmitatis hujuſmedi, a qua per Dei gratiam cujus eſt perimere & mederi, intepimus convaleſcere, idem parliamentum fuerit diſſolutum, & ſuper hoc nequiverimus ſuper petitione cenſus ejuſdem deliberationem habere cum praelatis & proceribus antedictis.
- ↑ The words are theſe: Dicunt etiam quod habent ex antiquo ſtatuto, quod ſi Rex a parliamento ſuo ſe alienaverit ſua ſponte non aliqua infirmitate aut aliqua alia de cauſa neceſſitatis, ſed per immoderatam voluntatem proterve ſe ſubtraxerit per abſentiam temporis 40 dierum, tanquam de vexatione populi ſui et gravibus expenſis eorum non curans, extunc licitum omnibus & ſingulis eorum abſque domigeria Regis redire ad propria & unicuique eorum in patriam ſuam remeare.
- ↑ Item, Licet de ſtatuto, & conſuetudine regni ſui in convocatione cujuſlibet parliamenti populus ſuus in ſingulis comitatibus regni debeat eſſe liber ad eligendum & deputandum milites pro hujuſmodi comitatibus ad intereſſendum parliamento, & ad exponendum eorum gravamina, & ad profequendum pro remediis ſuperinde prout eis videretur expedire; tamen prefatus Rex ut in parliamentis ſuis liberius conſequi valeat ſua temeraria voluntatis effectum, direxit mandata ſua frequentius vicecomitibus ſuis, ut certas perſonas per ipſum regem nominatas ut milites comitatuum venire faciant ad parliamenta ſua, quos quidem milites eidem Regi faventes inducere poterat, prout frequentius fecit, quandoque per minas varias, & terrores, & quandoque per munera ad conſentiendum illis qua Regno fuerant prejudicialia, & populo quamplurimum oneroſa; & ſpecialiter ad concedendum idem Regi ſubſidium lanarum ad terminum vita ſua, & aliud ſubſidium, ad certos annos, ſuum populum nimium opprimendo.