swered, “We will not change the laws of England hitherto used and approved."* CHAP. VII. ment to Shortly before De Neville's death, a national assembly had Attempt been summoned to meet at Westminster for the purpose of by parlia obtaining a pecuniary aid. But the bishops and the barons acquire took time to consider, and the result of their deliberations right of appointing was to give to the King a statement of grievances, which if Chancellor. he would redress, the aid required should be granted to him. The chief grievance was, that by the King's interference with the Great Seal the course of justice had been interrupted, and they therefore desired that both the Chancellor and Justices should be elected "per solemnem et universalem omnium convocationem et liberum assensum," and that, if upon any occasion the King should take his Seal away from the Chancellor, whatever might be sealed with it should be considered void and of none effect till it should be re-delivered to the Chancellor. The King negatived the petition, and would go no further than to promise that he would amend any thing he might find amiss. This refusal raised such a storm, that, to quiet it, he was obliged to grant a charter, by which he agreed that the Chancellor should be elected by the common consent of the great council. But this was soon disregarded; for popular election was found quite as bad as appointment by court favour or corruption, and the complaints against the venality and extortion of the Chancery were louder than before.† A rapid succession of Chancellors followed during the remainder of this reign, few of them much distinguished for We have not a list of the lords spiritual and temporal at this parliament, to ascertain their comparative numbers; but we have such a list of those summoned to and present at various subsequent parliaments, showing that the spiritual peers sometimes considerably outnumbered the temporal; and the difficulty arises, why, upon matters respecting the church and churchmen, on which they always acted together, the prelates did not succeed in carrying whatever measures they wished. But I suspect that although the two bodies sat in the same chamber, they were long considered as separate orders, the consent of each being necessary to the making of laws, so that although the bishops and mitred abbots might be more numerous, they could not carry a law against the will of the earls and barons. †M. Par. 564. Mad. Ex. 43. K3 VII. We CHAP. learning or ability; and the personal contests in which they were engaged were of no permanent interest. shall therefore do little more than enumerate their names. History," says Hume, "being a collection of facts which are multiplying without end, is obliged to adopt arts of abridgement, to retain the more material events, and to drop all the minute circumstances which are only interesting during the time, or to the persons engaged in the transactions. This truth is no where more evident than with regard to the reign of Henry III. What mortal could have patience to write or read a long detail of such frivolous events as those with which it is filled, or attend to a tedious narrative which would follow, through a series of fifty-six years, the caprices and weaknesses of so mean a prince?" We must be consoled by the reflection that we are now approaching the period when our representative constitution was formed, and the administration of justice was established on the basis upon which they remained through nearly six centuries to our own time. RANULPH Chancellor. A. D. 1244. The next Chancellor was RANULPH BRITON, Bishop of Bath and Wells, of whom we know little, except that almost immediately after he received the Great Seal, he is said to have died of apoplexy,—without any insinuation that his days were shortened by remorse at having deserted his party in agreeing to accept it. He is represented likewise as having been Chancellor to the Queen, an office I do not find mentioned elsewhere, the Queen Consort being considered sufficiently protected by being privileged as a feme sole, and having a right to sue by her attorney-general.* He was succeeded by SILVESTER DE EVERDON†, who had been the King's chaplain and Vice-chancellor, and who very soon retired from state affairs against the wishes of the King, being elected Bishop of Carlisle, and choosing to devote himself to the superintendence of this remote see. "Ranulfus Brito Regi et Reginæ Cancellarius lethali apoplexiâ corruit." M. Paris, p. 719. n. 40. Spelman doubts whether he was more than Keeper of the Great Seal under De Neville. Gloss. 110. Rot. Pat. 29 Hen. 3. m. 20. VII. A. D. 1246. MAUNSEL, Next came JOHN MAUNSEL, who held the office of Lord CHAP. Chancellor for nearly two years. He had gained some distinction as an ecclesiastical judge while Chancellor to the Bishop of London. While he held the Great Seal, he was JOHN promoted to be Provost of Beverley; but he does not seem Chancellor. to have obtained any farther preferment. This could not have arisen from the want of courtly compliance; for it was in his time that the dispensing power was first practised by a King of England since the Conquest, and he introduced the non obstante clause into grants and patents. The Chancellor might have urged by way of extenuation, that till this reign the prerogative could hardly be said to be under the restraint of law. The novelty being objected to, the defence Origin of actually made was, "that the Pope exercised a dispensing the dispower, and why might not the King imitate his example?" which made Thurkesley, one of the King's justices, exclaim, England. "Alas, what times are we fallen into? Behold, the civil Court is corrupted in imitation of the ecclesiastical, and the river is poisoned from that fountain." These irregularities becoming more grievous, they were made the subject of solemn remonstrance to the King by the great men assembled in Parliament, who, complaining of the conduct of the Chancellor, desired "that such a Chancellor might be chosen as should fix the state of the kingdom on its old basis." The King promised "that he would amend what he had heard was amiss," but did not farther attend to the remonstrance. pensing power in greatest pluralist on record. If Maunsel did not reach the mitre, he was a considerable This Chanpluralist, as he is computed to have held at once 700 eccle- cellor the siastical livings, having, I presume, presented himself to all that fell vacant and were in the gift of the Crown while he was Chancellor. Matthew Paris observes of him, that "it may be doubted whether he was either a wise or a good man who could burthen his conscience with the care of so many souls."† JOHN DE LEXINGTON, who had been intrusted with the custody of the Great Seal during his absence on an embassy, succeeded him as Chancellor‡, and continued in the *Rot. Pat. 31 Hen. 3. m. 2. †M. Paris, 856. Rot. Claus, 33 Hen. 3. m. 2. JOHN DE TON, Chancellor. LEXING ΤΟΝ, A. D. 1249. CHAP. VII. Complaint in parlia ment that not more consulted. office four years, having for his keepers of the Seal R. de Rivallis and William de Kilkenny, Archdeacon of Coventry. Great disputes now arose respecting the King's partiality to foreigners, and the national discontents were loud and Chancellor deep. Yet the Chancellor at first was not blamed as author of the bad measures of the government; and, on the contrary, regret was expressed that he was not more consulted. In an answer by the Parliament to a demand of the King for supplies, they complained, among many other grievances, “that he had neither Chancellor, Chief Justiciary, nor Treasurer in his council, as he ought to have, and as his most noble predecessors had before him." "The King, when he heard all this, was much confounded within himself, and ashamed," says M. Paris, "because he knew it all to be very true." Petition to remove him. King's answer, The Parliament obtaining no redress, afterwards petitioned for the removal of the present Chancellor, Chief Justiciary, and Treasurer, and the appointment of others deserving to be employed and trusted. This roused the indignation of the King, who said, "The servant is not above his lord, nor the disciple above his master; and what is your King more than your servant, if he is to obey your commands? Therefore my resolution is neither to remove the Chancellor, Justiciary, nor the Treasurer at your pleasure, nor will I appoint any other." The barons unanimously replied, that their petition being refused, they would no longer impoverish themselves to enrich foreigners, and the Parliament being dissolved without any supply, the King was obliged to raise money by the sale of his plate and jewels.* Lexington continued Chancellor till he was succeeded by a Lady Keeper. • 1 Parl. Hist. 23. 25. CHAPTER VIII. LIFE OF QUEEN ELEANOR, LADY KEEPER OF THE GREAT SEAL. CHAP. VIII. A. D. 1253. ELEANOR, In the summer of the year 1253 King Henry, being about to lead an expedition into Gascony to quell an insurrection in that province, appointed QUEEN ELEANOR Lady Keeper of the Great Seal during his absence, with this declaration- QUEEN "that if any thing which might turn to the detriment of the Lady Crown or realm was sealed in the King's name whilst he Keeper. continued out of the realm with any other seal, it should be utterly void." The Queen was to act with the advice of Richard Earl of Cornwall, the King's brother, and others of his council.* She accordingly held the office nearly a whole year, performing all its duties, as well judicial as ministerial. I am thus bound to include her in the list of "Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal," whose lives I have undertaken to delineate. rentage. Eleanor was the second daughter of Berenger, Count of Her paProvence, and his wife Beatrice of Savoy. From infancy she was celebrated for her wit and her beauty. While only Wit and beauty. thirteen years old she had written an heroic poem in the Provençal tongue, and it was sung by troubadours, who added verses of their own, praising the unparalleled charms of "Alienora la bella." In the year 1235 Henry III. had agreed to marry Joanna, a daughter of the Count de Ponthieu, but broke off the "De The commission to her as "LADY KEEPER" is extant, and curious. Magno Sigillo commissio. Rex omnibus, &c., salutem. Noverit universitas vestra quod nos in Vasconiam proficiscentes dimisimus Magnum Sigillum nostrum in custodia dilectæ Reginæ nostræ sub sigillo nostro privato et sigillis dilecti fratris et fidelis nostri Ricardi Comitis Cornubiæ et quorundam aliorum de consilio nostro; tali conditione adjecta quod si aliquid singnatum fuerit nomine nostro, dum extra regnum Angliæ fuerimus, alio sigillo quam illo, quod vergere poterit in coronæ nostræ vel regni nostri detrimentum vel diminutionem, nullius sit momenti et viribus careat omnino."-T. &c. pat. 37 H. 3. m. 8. |