in reading the disgraceful account then made | Maud, the duke prodigally released his 2000 of the English name, it will be manifest.

Who by a fatal dart in vast New Forest slain. His death by an infortunate loosing at a deer, out of one Walter Tirrel's hand in New Forest, his brother Richard being blasted there with infection, and Richard, duke Robert's son, having his neck broken there in a bough's twist catching him from his horse, have been thought as divine revenges on William the first, who destroyed in Hantshire thirty-six parish churches to make dens for wild beasts; although it is probable enough, that it was for security of landing new forces there, if the wheel of Fortune, or change of Mars, should have dispossest him of the English crown. Our stories will of these things better instruct you: but, if you seek Matthew Paris for it, amend the absurdity of both the London and Tigurin prints in An. 1086. and for Rex magnificus & bonæ indolis adolescens, read Rich. magnificus &c. for Richard brother to this Red William.

Was by that cruel king deprived of his sight. Thus did the conqueror's posterity unquietly possess their father's inheritance. William had much to do with his brother Robert, justly grudg. ing at his usurping the crown from right of primogeniture; but so much the less, in that Robert, with divers other German and French princes, left all private respects for the holy war, which after the cross undertaken (as those times used) had most fortunate success in recovery of Palestine. Robert had no more but the dutchy of Normandy, nor that without swords often drawn, before his holy expedition: about which (having first offer of, but refusing the kingdom of Jerusalem) after he had some five years been absent, he returned into England, finding his younger brother (Henry I.) exalted into his hereditary throne. For, although it were undoubtedly agreed that Robert was eldest Bon of the Conqueror; yet the pretence which gave Henry the crown (beside the means of his working favourites) was, that he was the only issue born after his father was a king: upon which point a great question is disputed among civilians (0). Robert was no sooner returned into Normandy, but presently (first animated by Randal bishop of Durham, a great disturber of the common peace betwixt the prince and subject by intolerable exactions and unlimited injustice under William II. whose chief justice (p) it seems he was, newly escaped out of prison (whither for those state-misdemeanors he was committed by Henry) he dispatches and intercharges intelligence with most of the baronage, claiming his primogeniture-right, and thereby the kingdom. Having thus gained to him most of the English nobility, he lands with forces at Portsmouth, thence marching towards Winchester: but before any encounter the two brothers were persuaded to a peace; covenant was made and confirmed by oath of twelve barons. on both parts, that Henry should pay him yearly 2000 pounds of silver, and that the survivor of them should inherit, the other dying without issue. This peace, upon denial of payment (which had the better colour, because, at request of queen

(o) Hottom. illust. quæst. 2.

(p) Placitator & exactor totius regni, Flor. Wig. & monarchorum turba,

pounds the next year after the covenant) was soon broken. The king (to prevent what mischief might follow a second arrival of his brother) assisted by the greatest favours of Normandy and Anjou, besieged duke Robert in one of his castles, took him, brought him home captive, and at length using that course (next secure to death) so often read of in Choniates, Cantacuzen, and other oriental stories, put out his eyes, being all this time imprisoned in Cardiff Castle, in Glamorgan, where he miserably breathed his last. It is by Polydore added, out of some authority, that king Henry after a few years' imprisonment released him, and commanded that within forty days and twelve hours (these hours have in them time of two floods, or a flood and an ebb) he should, abjuring England and Normandy, pass the seas as in perpetual exile; and that in the mean time, upon new treasons attempted by him, he was secondly committed, and endured bis punishment and death, as the common monks relate. I find no warrantable authority that makes me believe it: yet, because it gives some kind of example of our obsolete law of abjuration (which it seems had its beginning from one of the statutes published under name of the Confessor) a word or two of the time amined upon Bracton's credit, makes the report prescribed here for his passage: which being extherein faulty. For he seems confident that the forty days in abjuration, were afterward induced upon the statute of Clarindom (9), which gave the accused of felony or treason, although quitted by the ordel (that is, judgment by water or fire, but the statute published, speaks only of water, being the common trial of meaner (r) persons) forty days to pass out of the realin with his substance, which to other felons taking sanctuary and confessing to the coroner, he affirms not grantable; although John. le Breton is against him, giving this liberty in the sanctuary, for provision of their voyage of time, accounted after the abjuration to be spent necessaries, after which complete, no man, on pain of life and member, is to supply any of their wants. I know it a point very intricate to determine, observing these opposite authors and no express resolution. Since them, the oath of abjuration published among our manual statutes nearly agrees with this of duke Robert, but with neither of those old lawyers. In it, after the felon confesses, and abjures, and hath his port appointed; "I will (proceeds the oath) diligently endeavour to pass over at that port, and will not delay time there above a flood and an ebb, if I may have passage in that space; if not, I will every day go into the sea up to the knees, assaying to go over, and unless I may do this within forty continual days, I will return to the sanctuary, as a felon of our lord the king; so God me help," &c. So here the forty days are to be spent about the passage, and not in the sanctuary: compare this with other authorities (s), and you shall find all

(9) Hen. 2. ap. Rog. Hoved. fol. 314.

(r) Glanvil. lib. 14. cap. 1. cæterum, si placet, adeas Janum nostrum lib. 2. §. 67.

(s) Itin. North. 3. Ed. 3. Coron. 313. Lectur. ap. Br. tit. Coron. 181. V. Stamfordum lib. 2. cap. 40. qui de his gravitèr & modestè, sed εφεκτικώς.

they should denounce England under an interdict. The bishops tell king John as much, who suddenly, moved with imperious affection and scorn of

so dissonant, that reconciliation is impossible, resolution very difficult. I only offer to their consideration, which can here judge, why Hubert de Burch (earl of Kent, and chief justice of En-papal usurpation, swears," By God's truth, if gland, under Henry III.) having incurred the king's high displeasure, and grievously persecuted by great enemies, taking sanctuary, was, after his being violently drawn out, restored, yet that the sheriffs of Hereford and Essex were commanded to ward him there, and prevent all sustenance to be brought him, which they did, decernentes ibi XL dierum excubiis observare (1): And whether also the same reason (now unknown to us) bred this forty days for expectation of embarkment out of the kingdom, which gave it in another kind for return as in care of disseisin, the law hath beenthat the disseisor could not re-enter without action (u), unless he had as it were made a present and continual claim, yet if he had been out of the kingdom in single pilgrimage (that is, not in general voyages to the holy land) or in the king's service in France, or so, he had allowance of forty days, two floods, and one ebb, to come home in, and fifteen days, and four days, after his return; and if the tenant had been so beyond sea, he might have been essoigned de ultra mare, and for a year and a day, after which he had forty days, one flood, and one ebb (which is easily understood as the other for two floods) to come into England. This is certain, that the space of forty days (as a year and a day) hath had with us divers applications, as in what before, the assise of Freshforce in cities and boroughs, and the widow's quarentine, which seems to have had beginning either of a deliberative time granted to her, to think of her conveniency in taking letters of administration,as in another country() the reason of the like is given or else from the forty days in the essoign of child-birth allowed by the Norman customs. But you mislike the digression. It is reported, that when William the Conqueror in his death-bed left Normandy to Robert, and England to William the Red, this Henry asked him what he would give him? “Iɔɔ. pounds of silver (said he) and be contented, my son; for, in time, thou shalt have all which I possess, and be greater than either of thy brethren."

His sacrilegious hands upon the churches laid. The great controversy about electing the archbishop of Canterbury (the king, as his right bade him, commanding that John bishop of Norwich should have the prelacy, the pope, being Innocent III. for his own gain, aided with some disloyal monks of Canterbury, desiring, and at last consecrating Stephen of Langton, a cardinal) was first cause of it. For king John would by no means endure this Stephen, nor permit him the dignity after his unjust election at Rome, but banished the monks, and stoutly menaces the pope. He presently makes delegation to William bishop of London, Eustace of Ely, and Malgere of Worcester, that they should, with monitory advice, offer persuasion to the king of conformity to the Romish behest; if he persisted in constancy,

(4) Math. Par. pag. 507..

(u) Bract. lib. 4. tract. assis. Nov. Diss. cap. 5. & lib. 5. tract. de Esson. cap. 3. Vid. de Consuetudine in Oxonia 21. Ed. 3. fol. 46. b. (x) Cust. Generaulx, de Artois art. 164.

they or any other, with unadvised attempt, subject his kingdom to an interdict, he would presently drive every prelate and priest of England to the pope, and confiscate all their substance, and of all the Romans amongst them, he would first pull out their eyes, and cut off their noses, and then send them all packing," with other like threat ning terms, which notwithstanding were not able to cause them to desist; but within little time following in public denunciation they performed their authority; and the king, in some sort, his threatenings; committing all abbeys and priories to laymen's custody, and compelling every priest's concubine to a grievous fine. Thus for a while continued the realm without divine sacraments or exercise, excepted only confession, extreme unction, and baptism; the king being also excommunicat ed, and burials allowed only in high-ways and ditches without ecclesiastic ceremony, and (but only by indulgence procured by archbishop Langton, who purchased favour that in all the monasteries, excepting of White-friars, might be divine service once a week) had no change for some four or five years, when the pope in a solemn council of cardinals, according to his pretended plenary power, deposed king John, and immediately by his legate Pandulph offered to Philip II. of France the kingdom of England. This, with suspicion of the subjects' hearts at home, and another cause then more esteemed than either of these, that is, the prophecy of one Peter, an hermit in Yorkshire, foretelling to his face," that before holy Thursday following he should be no king," altered his stiff and resolute, but too disturbed affections; and persuaded him by oath of himself and sixteen more of his barons, to make submission to the church of Rome, and condescend to give for satisfaction, 155. clɔ. clɔ. clɔ. pounds sterling (that name of sterling began (y), as I am instructed, in time of Henry II. and had its original of name from some Esterling, making that kind of money, which hath its essence in particular weight and fineness, not of the starling bird, as some, nor of Sterling, in Scotland, under Edward I. as others absurdly; for in records (2) much more ancient, the express name Sterlingorum I have read) to the clergy, and subject all his dominions to the pope (a); and so had absolution, and after four years, release of the interdict (b). I was the willinger to insert it all, because you might see what injurious opposition, by papal usurpation, he endured, and then conjecture that his violent dealings against the church were not without intolerable provocation, which madded rather than amended his troubled spirits. not find a prince more beneficial to the holy cause Easily you shall than he, if you take his former part of reign, before this ambitious Stephen of Langton's elec

The general charter seiz’d

tion exasperated desire of revenge. Most kindsorious exauthorizing the prince, then assisting habitude then was betwixt him and the pope, and and moving forward his proneness, to faithless for alms towards Jerusalem's aid, he gave the abrogation, by pretence of an interceding univerfortieth part of his revenue, and caused his baro- sal authority. nage to second his example. Although therefore he be no ways excusable of many of those faults, both in government and religion which are laid The last note somewhat instructs you in what on him, yet it much extenuates the ill of his you are to remember, that is, the grand charters action, that he was so besieged with continual and granted and (as matter of fact was) repealed by undigestable incentives of the clergy with traitor-king John; his son Henry III. of some nine years' ous confidence striking at his crown, and in such age (under protection first of William Marshal, sort, as humanity must have exceeded itself, to earl of Pembroke, after the earl's death, Peter de have endured it with any mixture of patience. Roches, bishop of Winchester) in the ninth year Nor ever shall I impute that his wicked attempt of his reign, in a parliament held at Westminster, of sending ambassadors, Thomas Hardington, desired of the baronage (by mouth of Hubert de Ralph Fitz-Nicholas, and Robert of London, to Burch proposing it) a fifteenth: whereto upon Amiramully, king of Morocco, for the Mahome- deliberation, they gave answer, quod legis petitan religion, so much to his own will and nature, tionibus gratantèr adquiescerent, si illis diù petitas as to the persecuting bulls, interdicts, excommu- libertates concedere voluisset. The king agreed nications, deposings, and such like, published and to the condition, and presently under the great acted by them, which counterfeiting the vain seal delivered charters of them into every county name of pastors, shearing, and not feeding their of England, speaking as those of king John (saith sheep, made this poor king (for they brought him Paris) ita quod chartæ utrorúmque regum in so poor, that he was called Johannes (c) sine terra) nullo inveniuntur dissimiles. Yet those which we even as a phrenetic, commit what posterity re- have, published want of that which is in king ceives now among the worst actions (and in them- John's, wherein you have a special chapter that, selves they are so) of princes. if a Jew's debtor die, and leave his heir within age subject to payment, the usury during the nonHis baronage were forc'd defensive arms to raise. age should cease, which explains the meaning of No sooner had Pandulph transacted with the the statute of Merton, chap. v. otherwise but ill king, and Stephen of Langton was quietly possest interpreted in some of our year books(ƒ): after of his archbishopric, but he presently, in a coun- this, follows further, that no aid, except to recil of both orders at Paul's, stirs up the hearts deem the king's person out of captivity (example of the barons against John, by producing the old of that was in Richard I. whose ransom out of charter of liberties granted by Henry I. compre- the hands of Leopold, duke of Austria, was near hending an instauration of saint Edward's laws, ccclɔɔ. pounds of silver, collected from the subas they were amended by the conqueror, and project) make his eldest son knight, or marry his voking them to challenge observation thereof as an absolute duty to subjects of free state. He was easily heard, and his thoughts seconded with rebellious designs: and after denials of this purposed request, armies were mustered to extort these liberties. But at length by treaty in Runingmede, near Stanes, he gave them two charters; the one, of liberties general, the other of the forest: both which were not very different from our grand charter and that of the forest. The pope at his request confirmed all but the same year, discontentment (through too much favour and respect given by the king to divers strangers, whom since the composition with the legate, he had too frequently, and in too high esteem entertained) renewing among the barons, ambassadors were sent to advertise the pope what injury the see of Rome had by this late exaction of such liberties out of the kingdom, in which it had such great interest (for king John had been very prodigal to it, of his best and most majestical titles) and with what commotion the batons had rebelled against him, soon obtained a bull cursing in thunder all such as stood for any longer maintenance of those granted charters. This (as how could it be otherwise?) bred new, but almost incurable broils in the state betwixt king and subject: but in whom more, than in the pope and his archbishop, was cause of this dissention? Both, as wicked boutefeus, applying themselves to both parts; sometimes animating the subject by cen

(c) John Hadland.

at

eldest daughter, should be levied of the subject,
but by parliament. Yet, reason why these are
omitted in Henry III, his charter, it seems, easily
may be given; seeing ten years before time of
Edward Longshank's exemplification (which is
that whereon we now rely, and only have) all
Jews were banished the kingdom: and among the
petitions and grievances of the commons
time of his instaturation of this charter to them,
one was thus consented to; Nullam tallagium vel
auxilium, per nos vel hæredes nostros de cætero
in regno nostro imponatur seu levetur sine volun-
tate & consensu communi arciepiscoporum, epis-
coporum, abbatum & aliorum prælatorum, co-
mitam, baronum, militum, burgensium, & aliorum
liberorum hominum (g): which although compared
with that of aids by tenure, be no law, yet I conjec-
ture that upon this article was that chapter of
aids omitted. But I return to Henry: he, within
some three years, summons a parliament to Ox-
ford, and declares his full age, refusing any
longer Peter de Roches his protection; but taking
all upon his personal government, by pretence of
past nonage, caused all the charters of the forest
to be cancelled, and repealed the rest, (for so I
take it, although my author speak chiefly of that
of the forest) and made the subject with price of
great sums, rated by his chief justice Hugh de

(f)35 Hen. 6. fol. 61. & 3. Eliz. Plowd. 1. fol. 236. atque vid. Bract. lib. 2. cap. 26. §. 2.

(g) Thom. de Walsingham in 26. Ed. 1. Polyd. Hist. 17.

t

thousands of their men, ooth under this victorious Edward, and his son the Black Prince, and others of his successors. His case stood briefly thus: Philip IV. surnamed the Fair, had issue three sons, Lewis the Contentious (r), Philip the Long, and Charles the Fair, (all these successively reigned after him, and died without issue inheritable :) he had likewise a daughter Isabel (I purposely omit the other, being out of the present matter,) married to Edward II, and so was mother to Edward III. The issue made of Philip the Fair thus failing, Philip, son and heir of Charles earl of Valois, Beaumont, Alenson, &c. (which was brother to Philip the Fair,) challenged the crown of France as next heir male against this Edward, who an swered to the objections of the Salic law, that (admitting it as their assertion was, yet) he was heir male, although descended of a daughter: and in a public assembly of the states first about protectorship of the womb, (for queen Joan, dowager of the Fair Charles, was left with child, but afterward delivered of a daughter, Blanch, afterwards dutchess of Orleans) was this had in a solemn disputation by lawyers on both sides, and applied at length also to the direct point of inheriting the crown. What followed upon judgment given against his right, the valiant and famous deeds of him and his English, recorded in Walsingham, Froissart, Æmilius, and the multitude of later collected stories make manifest. But for the law itself every mouth speaks of it; few, I think, understand at all why they name it. The opinions are, that it being part of the ancient laws made among the Salians (the same with Franks) under king Pharamond, about 1200 years since, had thence denomination; and Goropius (that fetches all out of Dutch, and more tolerably perhaps this than many other of his etymologies) deriving the Salians' name from Sal, which in contraction he makes from Sadel (y)* (inventors whereof the Franks, saith he, were) interprets them as it were horsemen, a name fitly applied to the warlike and most noble of any nation, as Chivalers () in French, and Equites in Latin allows likewise. So that, upon collection, the Salic law by him is as much as a chivalrous law, and Salic land, quæ ad equestris ordinis dignitatem & in capite summo, & in cæteris membris conservandum pertinebat: which very well agrees with a sentence (a) given in the parliament at Bourdeaux upon an ancient testament, devising all the testator's Salic lands, which was, in point of judgment interpreted fief (b). And who knows not that fiefs were originally military gifts? But then, if so, how comes Salic to extend to the crown, which is merely without tenure? Therefore Ego scio (c) (saith a later lawyer) legem privato salicam agere de patrimonio tantum. composed (not this alone, but with others as they say) by Wisogast, Bodogast, Salogast, and Windogast, wise counsellors about that Pharamond's reign. The text of it in this part is offered us

(x) Hunting.

It was

(y) Francic. lib. 2.

*As our word saddle. (z) Knights. (a) Bodin. de Repub. 6. cap. 5. vid. Barth. Chassan. Cons. Burgund, Rubric. 3. §. 5. num. 70.

(b) Knights' fees, or lands held.

(c) Paul Merul. Cosmog. part. 2. 1. 3.

cap. 17.

by Claude de Seissell, bishop of Marseilles, Rodin,
and divers others of the French, as it were as
ancient as the original of the name, and in these
words, De terra salica nulla portio hereditatis
mulieri veniat, sed ad virilen sexum tota terræ
hereditas perveniat; and in substance, as re-
ferred to the person of the king's heir female; so
mach is remembered by that great civilian Bal-
dus (d), and divers others, but rather as custom
than any particular law, as one(ƒ) of that kingdom
also hath expressly and newly written; Ce n'est
point une loy écritte, mais nee avec nous, que
nous n'avons point inventee, mais l'avons puisse
de la nature même, qui le nous a ainsi apris &
donné cet instinct: But why the same author
dares affirm that king Edward yielded upon this
point to the French Philip de Valois, I wonder,
seeing all story and carriage of state in those
times is so manifestly opposite. Becanus under-
takes a conjecture of the first cause, which ex-
cluded gynæcocracy among them, guessing it to
be upon their observation of the misfortune in
war, which their neighbours the Bructerans (a
people about the now Over-Yssel, in the Nether-
lands, from near whom he, as many other, first
derive the Franks) endured in time of Vespasian,
under the conduct and empire of one Velleda (g),
a lady even of divine esteein amongst them. But
howsoever the law be in truth, or interpretable,
(for it might ill beseem me to offer determination in
matter of this kind) it is certain, that to this day,
they have an use of ancient time (h), which commits
to the care of some of the greatest peers, that they,
when the queen is in child-birth, be present, and
warily observe, lest the ladies privily should coun-
terfeit the inheritable sex, by supposing some
other made when the true birth is female, or, by
any such means, wrong their ancient custom
royal, as of the birth of this present Lewis the
XIIlth, on the last of September in 1601, is,
after other such remembered.

Of these two factions styl'd, of York and Lan

caster.

Briefly their beginning was thus: Edward the IIId had seven sons, Edward the Black Prince, William of Hatfield +, Lionel, duke of Clarence, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, Edmund of Langley, duke of York, Thomas of Woodstock, and William of Windsor; in prerogative of birth as I name them. The Black Prince died in life of his father, leaving Richard of Bourdeaux (afterward the Ild). William of Hatfield died without issue; Henry, duke of Lancaster (son to John of Gaunt the fourth brother) deposed Richard the Ild. and to the Vth and VIth of his name, left the kingdom descending in right line of the family of Lancaster. On the other side Lionel, duke of Clarence, the third brother, had only issue Philip a daughter, married to Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, (who, upon this title, was designed heir apparent to Richard IId). Edmund, by her had