129 CHAPTER IV. THE LINE OF LANCASTER. A.D. 1399-1461. HENRY IV.-HENRY V.-HENRY VI SECTION I. HENRY IV., September 29, A. D. 1399,-March 20, A. D. 1413. 1. The Title of Henry IV. to the 2. The Constitutional Rights of the 3. General Legislative Enactments. 1. The Title of Henry IV. to the Crown. WILLIAM II. and Henry I. had obtained the throne in prejudice of the claims of their elder brother Robert; Stephen had been advanced to the same dignity, contrary to every opinion of hereditary succession; John had been crowned in opposition to the claims of Arthur, the son of his elder brother; but from that time, during a period of two hundred years, the opinion of hereditary right to the throne had been preserved without interruption. HENRY IV. 1399—1413. vested with the royal power, as his father. For although Edward III. had been invested with the Edward III. inroyal power in the lifetime of his deposed father, it was in the character of apparent heir of that father; and his grandson, apparent heir to Richard II., at a very early age, had succeeded his grandfather, before whose death the people and the parliament had shown an anxiety to obtain a recognition of the title of Richard to the succession, as the representative of his father. But Henry IV. obtained the crown, evidently against the prevailing opinion of hereditary right, to the prejudice of the claims of the Earl of March, the grandson of Lionel, the elder brother of John of Gaunt, father of Henry; and the right of the Earl of March, as presumptive heir to the crown, had been acknowledged by Richard. The title of Henry IV., though he sometimes affected to derive it through a different channel, depended wholly on the authority of the lords and commons, summoned in the name of Richard to attend his parliament, in which the three K Title of Henry parliament 1399-1413. HENRY IV. estates of the realm exercised the authority to depose their king, and to place another on the throne. These acts of power, notwithstanding the preceding struggles, and in some degree the violence of the deposition, had a considerable effect on the minds of the people, by raising in their estimation the power and authority of parliament; and also tended to impress on the king, the degree of his dependance on that assembly, as being the origin and support of his regal authority. The effects of faction. Henry IV. supported his title by military authority. Richard ad tual imprison Faction, as it oppresseth the whole community, if it succeeds; so it often draws oppression, not only on itself alone, but on the whole community, when it fails. The attempts to dethrone Henry IV.' was a justification to support himself by a military force; and was an excuse, in the minds of many, for governing with a severe hand; for doing several illegal and tyrannical actions; for invading the privileges of parliament, at least, in the point of elections; and for obtaining, by these means, frequent and heavy taxes from the people; for all this might appear the harder, because it happened in the reign of a king, who had no title to the crown but the good will of the people, and the free gift of parliament; so it might appear, on the other hand, less grievous, because some part of it was rendered necessary by the opposition, which a faction made to a parliamentary establishment; and because the rest of it was represented, under that umbrage, to be so likewise, by the court logic of that age. The king, shortly after his accession, came to the parliajudged to perpe- ment; and there, by assent of the lords spiritual and temporal, Richard, late king of England, was adjudged to perpetual imprisonment, to remain secretly in safe guard". ment. To this proceeding the commons were not parties, but they shortly afterwards shewed to the king, that as the judgments of parliament belonged solely to the king and the lords, and not to the commons, unless the king pleased of his special grace, to shew them such judgments for their ease, that no record should be made in parliament concerning the said commons, that they were or should be parties to any judgment given or to be given in parliament. Walsing. 362-368. Otterbourne, 244. Ypod. Neust. 556, 560. Hall, fol. 21, 22, et seq. 8 Rymer, 313-338. Harl. MSS. 42, fol. 152. 3 Hume, 63, 70. 3 Lingard, 279-303. Bolingbroke, Hist. Eng. 66. Rot. Parl. Hen. IV. 426, 427. 3 Lingard, 278. 1399-1413. Disclaimer by judicial power. the commons of To this it was answered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, HENRY IV. by command of the king, that the commons were petitioners and demanders, and that the king and the lords, of all time, had had, and ought to have, of right, the judgments in parliament, in manner as the commons had shewn; save that in a statute to be made, or in grants and subsidies, or such things to be done for the common profit of the realm, the king would have especially their advice and assent; and this order of proceeding should be holden and kept in all time to come. The commons, in the convention of the estates, had concurred in the judgment of deposition against Richard; but the judgment of perpetual imprisonment against him, was not a legal consequence of that judgment, nor was it in any manner a judgment of law, but a mere ordinance of policy; it therefore ought to have been by statute; but the commons disclaimed the right of exercising judicial powers. 2. The Constitutional Rights of the Lords and Commons defined. Convention of the three estates, in the judgment of deposition. authority by the The king being obliged to conciliate the nation, the Assumption of commons, aware of their importance, assumed powers, which had never been exercised by their predecessors. In the first year they procured a law, that no judge, in concurring with any iniquitous measure, should be excused by pleading the orders of the king, or even the danger of his own life from the menaces of the sovereign'. The reasonableness and expediency of this measure are very manifest; it being the indispensable duty of a good minister to dissuade his master from all illegal measures, or, if he cannot prevail, to quit his service, rather than suffer himself to be made the instrument of them; and if the commands of the prince were to be allowed a sufficient justification, the prerogative of doing no wrong, would be extended to ministers, and nobody would be left accountable for mal-administration. commons. No judge to plead the orders of the king for an illegal act. plies until petitions were answered. In 2 Ilenry IV., the commons claimed a right of not granting Refusal of supany supply before they received an answer to their petitions; which was a tacit manner of bargaining with the crown*. They also inserted in their pecuniary grants, that the king 1 Cotton, 364. 3 Hume, 78. 2 Cotton, 406. 3 Rot. Parl. 458. 3 Lingard, 322. 1319-1493. HENRY IV. could not lawfully raise such aids, without the consent of the lords and commons: and, in consequence, no precedents for arbitrary taxation of exports or imports occur from the accession of Richard II. to the reign of Mary'. Removal of household offi cers. Treasurers appointed to receive supplies. Articles regu lating the government and household. In the fifth year they desired the king to remove from his household four persons, who had displeased them, among whom was his own confessor; and Henry, though he told them that, he knew of no offence which these men had committed, yet, in order to gratify them, complied with their request". In 6 Henry IV., the house voted supplies to the crown, but appointed treasurers of their own, to see the money disbursed for the purposes intended, and required them to deliver in their accounts to the house; and from that period, the supply was generally appropriated to specific purposes, excepting a certain sum for the absolute disposal of the crown; a custom which first originated during the minority of Richard II. The privilege of freedom of debate, of verbally presenting their petitions, and exemption from arrest or imprisonment, were also recognised in this reign. In 8 Henry IV., the commons proposed, for the regulation of the government and household, thirty important articles, which were all agreed to; and they even obliged all the members of council, all the judges, and all the officers of the household, to swear to the observance of them'. 10 99 The increased authority of the commons arose from the domestic difficulties of the crown; but when the kingdom became more settled, he repulsed their aggressions;—thus, when the speaker made his customary application for "liberty of speech," the king told him, "he would have no novelties introduced, and would enjoy his prerogatives 10, The king, however, in danger and prosperity maintained the church property inviolability of church property, thus;-the commons, in the sixth year of this reign, when required to grant supplies, proposed that the crown should seize all the temporalities of the church, and employ them as a perpetual fund to serve the exigencies of the state; but Henry discouraged their application", Inviolability of maintained. 3 3 Rot. Parl. 493. 3 Hume, 78. 6 Cotton, 438. 3 Rot. Parl. 523, 529. 42 Howell's State Trials, 443, 507. 3 Hume, 78. 73 Rot. Parl. 540, 542. 10 3 Rot. Parl. 648. 3 Lingard, 320, 321. 3 Hume, 78. and when in the eleventh year they made a similar, but more HENRY IV. "zealous" proposition, he gave them a severe reproof 1. 12 1399-1413. as " procuratores In 7 and 8 Henry IV., the settlement of the succession Commons treated to the crown, was ordered to be exemplified under the great et attornati." seal, and according to the language of this instrument, the knights, citizens, and burgesses, assembled in parliament, were then considered as 66 procuratores et attornati" of all the counties, cities, and boroughs, and of the whole people of the kingdom, "per universitates et communitates" of the same counties, cities, and boroughs, and by the whole people of the same, lawfully constituted, according to the style, manner, and observance of the kingdom. Therefore, by the usage of the kingdom, the knights, citizens, and burgesses, as then elected and returned, though elected and returned only by some, were to be considered as in effect procurators and attorneys for the whole, and had power to act for the whole; and that for this purpose they were assembled before the king, and before the prelates, and the lords, and all who, according to usage, ought to attend the parliament. shire. Stat. 7 Henry IV. Enactments were likewise made, respecting the election of Election of knights of the shire, by which it was provided that at the next knights of the county to be holden after delivery of the writ to the sheriff, proclamation should be made, in full county, of the day and c. 15. place of the parliament; and that all those who should be then present, as well suitors duly summoned for any cause as others, should attend the election of their knights for the parliament, and then in county should go to the election, freely and indifferently, notwithstanding any prayer or command to the contrary; and after the knights should be elected, whether absent or present, their names should be written in an indenture, under the seals of all those who should elect them, and annexed to the parliament writ; which indenture, so sealed and annexed, should be deemed the return of the writ as to the knights of the counties. And that in writs of the parliament in future should be inserted this clause,—“ Et electionem tuam in pleno comitatu tuo factam, distincte et aperte, sub sigillo tuo, et sigillis eorum qui electioni illi interfuerint, nobis in cancellaria nostra, ad diem et locum in brevi content, certifices indilate"." 12 Walsing. 379. 8 Rymer, 627. Otterbourne, 267. 13 3 Rot. Parl. 574, 575. 14 Stat. 7 Henry IV. c. 15; 4 Inst. 10, 48. |