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These motives had hitherto induced Edward to follow the example of his predecessors, and to employ ecclesiastics as his ministers, at the risk of their turning against him and setting him at defiance. But, finding that by the Clementine Constitutions he was obliged immediately to release the dismissed Chancellor from prison, and that the Archbishop, whom he likewise wished to call to account, fulminated an excommunication against him, he resolved in future to employ only men whom he could control and punish.

CHAP.

XIII.

CHAP.
XIV.

Dec. 14. 1340.

SIR ROBERT

BOURCHIER,

CHAPTER XIV.

CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS OF THE GREAT SEAL, FROM THE
APPOINTMENT OF SIR ROBERT BOURCHIER TILL THE APPOINT-
MENT OF WILLIAM OF WICKHAM.

THE first lay Lord Chancellor in England was Sir ROBERT
BOURCHIER, Knight*, a distinguished soldier.

He was the eldest son of Sir John Bourchier, a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas,- the representative of a family long seated at Halstead, in Essex. His education was very slender, being engaged in military adventures from early youth; but he showed great capacity as well as courage in and mili- the field, and was a particular favourite of King Edward III., tary career. whom he accompanied in all his campaigns. In 1337 he

Chancellor.

His birth

Retirement and death of Exchancellor

Stratford.

was at the battle of Cadsant, and had lately before Tournay witnessed the discomfiture of all Edward's mighty preparations for the conquest of France. He joined in the loud complaints against the ministers who had been appointed to superintend the supplies and levies at home, and in the advice that the Stratfords should be punished for their supposed misconduct.

The resolution being taken to put down the ascendency of ecclesiastics, from the shrewdness and energy of this stout knight, he was thought a fit instrument to carry it into effect, and not only was the Great Seal delivered to him, but he was regarded as the King's chief councillor.

After Robert de Stratford, the late Chancellor, had been released from prison, he made submission, and it was agreed to take no farther steps against him. He appears now to Robert de have retired from politics, and we read no more of him except that he acquired great applause for the prudence with which he suppressed a mighty sedition in the University of Oxford, arising from the opposite factions of the northern and southern scholars, the former, by reason of the many grievances they complained of, having retired for a time to Stamford in

Rot. Cl. 14 Ed. 3. m. 10.

Lincolnshire. He afterwards resided entirely in his diocese.
His life was prolonged to the 9th of April, 1392.

CHAP.

XIV.

Prosecu

tion of Ex

chancellor

But it was determined to take ample vengeance on Exchancellor, John de Stratford, to whose mismanagement was imputed the bad success of the war, and who continued to John de defy the power of the Crown.

First came a proclamation under the Great Seal, framed by Lord Chancellor Bourchier, and ordered to be read in all churches and chapels,-- charging the Ex-chancellor with having intercepted the supplies granted to the King, and either with having appropriated them to himself, or having diverted them from their legitimate objects. To this Stratford opposed a pastoral letter, victoriously refuting the accusation.

Stratford.

ment.

Writ of

summons

refused to

bishop.

But a parliament was always considered the ready engine A parliaof vengeance in the hands of the dominant party, and one was summoned to meet at Westminster, in April, 1341. Still some apprehensions were entertained from the sacred character of the party to be accused, and from his eloquence and influence if he were regularly heard in his own defence. The King and his military Chancellor therefore resorted to the unconstitutional step of withholding from him a writ of summons, thinking that he might thus be prevented from the Archappearing in the Upper House. The Ex-chancellor, nothing His remonappalled, sent a remonstrance to the King, stating (among strance. other things), "that there were two powers by which the world was governed, the holy, pontifical, apostolic dignity, and the royal subordinate authority; that of these two powers the clerical was evidently the supreme, since priests were to answer at the tribunal of the Divine judgment for the conduct of Kings themselves; that the clergy were the spiritual fathers of all the faithful, and therefore of Kings and Princes, and were entitled by a heavenly charter to direct their wills and actions, and to censure their transgressions; and that Prelates had heretofore cited Emperors before their tribunal, had sat in judgment on their life and behaviour, and had anathematised them for their obstinate offences.'

* 1 St. Tr. 57.

CHAP.
XIV.

His appearance in Palace Yard.

Informa

tion against him in Exche

quer.

Triumphs

over the King.

Spirited conduct of

House of

Peers.

On the day when parliament met the Archbishop showed himself before the gates of Westminster Hall, -arrayed in his pontifical robes, holding the crosier in his hand, and attended by a pompous train of priests. This ceremony being finished, he was proceeding to the chamber where the peers were assembled, but he was forbid by the captain of the guard to enter. While demanding admittance, he was seized by officers and carried to the bar of the Court of Exchequer, where he was called upon to plead to an information which had been filed against him by the AttorneyGeneral, and which treated him as a great pecuniary defaulter to the Crown. He then stationed himself in Palace Yard, and solemnly protested that he would not stir from that place till the King gave him leave to come into parliament, or a sufficient reason why he should not. Standing there in this manner, with the emblems of his holy office, some that were by began to revile him, saying to him, "Thou art a traitor: thou hast deceived the King and betrayed the realm." He answered them, "The curse of Almighty God and of his blessed Mother, and of St. Thomas, and mine also, be upon the heads of them that inform the King so. Amen, amen."

During two days the King rejected his application; but he petitioned the peers against the injury thus offered to the first peer in the realm, and the house took it up as a matter of privilege. The King agreed to a personal conference with him in the Painted Chamber, and, after some discussion, consented to his taking his seat in the house, but his Majesty then abruptly withdrew, and employed Sir John Darcy and Sir William Killesby to accuse him before the citizens of London and the House of Commons.

The Lords, alarmed for the rights and honour of their body, prayed the King to acknowledge, that when a peer was impeached by the Crown for high crimes and misdemeanours, he could not be compelled to plead before any other tribunal than the House of Peers; and when Edward objected that such an acknowledgment would be prejudicial to the public interests, and derogatory to the royal prerogatives, they requested his permission to refer the matter to a committee of

four prelates, four earls, and four barons. The committee reported, as an undeniable principle, that no peer could be arraigned or brought to judgment, except in parliament and by his peers. This was unanimously approved of by the House, and embodied in an address to the King.*

CHAP.

XIV.

submits.

The apprehension of serious consequences from this rup- King ture, and the necessity of procuring a supply, induced Edward to declare that he was willing that the charge should drop. The triumph of the Primate was complete, for he now desired that, whereas he had been publicly defamed through the realm, he might be arraigned in open parliament before his peers; but the King adjourned the matter to the next parliament, and then he ordered all the proceedings against him to be annulled and vacated. In truth, the Ex-chancellor's crime consisted in expostulating with the King about his profuseness, and in persuading him to make peace with France.

He lived seven years afterwards, universally honoured and beloved; and at his death, after founding and endowing a college at his native place, he left all his estate to his servants and domestics. He is said to have been " a man of a mild and gentle nature, more inclinable to pardon the guilty than to punish them with severity, and very charitable to the poor." +

His death

and cha

racter.

Lord Chan

Bourchier, during his short Chancellorship, was entirely Conduct of occupied with the King's political business, particularly in the management of his diplomacy,--the duties of foreign secre- Bourchier.

1 St. Tr. 65.

They further insisted that no peer who had been employed in the great offices of the Crown should, in respect of his office, be called before any other court of justice, and that in such a case he ought not to be arraigned at the prosecution of the King, nor lose his temporalities, lands, tenements, goods, or chattels, nor be arrested, imprisoned, or outlawed, nor plead nor receive judgment, except in full parliament and before his peers, although they admitted that a peer in receipt of the King's monies ought to account in the Exchequer, and also that a peer if he pleased might plead before another court, but without prejudice to the rights of the peerage, as far as regarded others or himself, on future occasions. This early case of privilege by no means settled the law on the subject, for it is only in cases of treason and felony that a peer is entitled to be tried by his peers, and this immunity is restricted to peers noble by blood, so that the prelates are triable in all cases by a jury. -- See 1 St. Tr. 57.

See 1 Parl. Hist. 101.

cellor

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