CHAP. oath from using the arts of witchcraft, whereby he has injured the plaintiff, from the latter having been attorney in a suit against the Prior of Bodmin, in whose service the defendant is. [It would be curious to know on what affidavit the application was made, and whether it was granted, and whether there was any motion for a breach of the injunction.] Sampson & Gage v. Creeve & Brearye. Complaint, that the defendants, being officers of the sheriffs of London, forcibly took the plaintiff's out of the sanctuary of St. Katherine, and confined them in the Poultry Compter. [One would have supposed that the process of excommunication and interdict would have been more effectual.] Brown v. Widow of James Lord Say. Bill to set aside the release of lands made by duress of imprisonment to the Lord Say, who, just before he was put to death by Jack Cade, confessed the wrong he had done, and desired his confessor to urge his wife to make restitution. [If the suit succeeded on the evidence of the confessor, this would be an authority for Mr. Justice Buller having hanged a man upon a confession in extremis to his priest, whom he compelled to disclose it.] Piers Godard v. William Ridmynton. Bill addressed to the Master of the Rolls, complaining that defendant had ravished his servant maid. [There is no prayer of specific relief, nor any statement that the maid had been under the care of the defendant, to make it a case of breach of trust.] See 1 Cooper on Public Records, 362. Bridges v. Harvey. Bill praying the Chancellor to restrain the defendant by oath from using the arts of witchcraft, whereby he has injured the plaintiff, on account of his having been attorney in a suit against the Prior of Bodmin, in whose service the defendant is employed. Appleton v. Aleyn & Others. Bill complaining that defendants had forcibly taken away the daughter of the plaintiff and married her, whereby the plaintiff lost the profit of her marriage. Qwyncy v. Laudasdale & Hempstile. Bill complaining that defendants, late sheriffs of Norwich, had imprisoned and greatly oppressed the plaintiff, in consequence of his making tallow candles with wicks of flax instead of cotton, by desire of the poor people. Hilton v. Pollard & Matthews. Complaint that plaintiff, at the time of Jack Cade's rebellion, delivered certain plate for safe custody to his late servant John Rich, who, on his death-bed, charged the defendants, his executors, to restore the same to the plaintiff. CHAPTER XXIII. CHANCELLORS IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD IV. CHAP. 4 March, George EDWARD IV. having been proclaimed king on the 5th of March, 1461, on the 10th of the same month the Great Seal was delivered, the second time, to George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, who took the oaths as Chancellor.* He had been an 1461. active leader in the tumultuary proceedings which took place Neville in the metropolis during the late crisis. Without calling a again parliament, first by a great public meeting in St. John's Fields, and then by an assembly of bishops, peers, and other persons of distinction at Baynard's Castle, he had contrived to give a semblance of national consent to the change of dynasty. Chancellor. ment. on opening The new King, after the decisive battle of Towton, in which 36,000 Englishmen were computed to have fallen, but which firmly established his throne, having leisure to hold a parliament, it met at Westminster in November, and was opened Nov. 1461. in a notable oration by Lord Chancellor Neville, who took A parliafor his theme "Bonas facite vias ;" but we are not informed Chancelwhether he exhorted them to make provision for the repair lor's speech of the highways, greatly neglected during the civil war, or to session. find out ways and means to restore the dilapidated finances of the country, or what other topics he dwelt upon. Speaker had been chosen by the Commons, who, being allowed, addressed the King, commending him for his extraordinary courage and conduct against his enemies,-the Chancellor read a long declaration of the King's title to the crown, to which was added a recapitulation of the tyrannous reign of Henry IV., and his heinous murdering of Richard II.† After a The required acts of attainder and restitution being passed *Fœd. xi. 473. † 1 Parl. Hist. 419. XXIII. CHAP. against Lancastrians and in favour of Yorkists, the King, according to modern fashion, closed the session with a gracious speech, delivered by himself from the throne.* After his Majesty had ended his speech, the record tells us that "the Lord Chancellor stood up and declared, that since the whole business of this parliament was not yet concluded, and the approaching festival of Christmas would obstruct it, he therefore, by the King's command, prorogued the parliament to the 6th of May next ensuing. At the same time he told them of certain proclamations which the King had issued against badges, liveries, robberies, and murders, and which the Bishops, Lords, and Commons promised to obey."+ Acts against wearing piked shoes. Neville was made Archbishop of York, and continued to hold the office of Chancellor till the 8th of June, 1467; but I do not find any transaction of much consequence in which he was afterwards engaged. The parliaments called were chiefly employed in reforming the extravagant fashion prevailing among the people of adorning their feet by wearing pikes to their shoes, so long as to encumber them in their walking, unless tied up to the knee with chains of gold, silver, or silk. There was a great outcry against these enormitics, and this appears to have operated as a diversion in favour of the Court of Chancery, which now enjoyed a long respite from parliamentary attack. Several statutes were passed, regulating the length of pikes of shoes, under very severe penalties; but the fame of reformers is generally short-lived, and I cannot affirm that the Lord Chancellor gained any distinction by bringing forward or supporting these measures. In 1463 the pleasing and novel task was assigned to Lord Chancellor Neville, of announcing to the Commons that, from the flourishing state of the royal revenue, the King released to them parcel of the grant of a former session. "James A little specimen of the language and style may be interesting. Stranways and ye that be comyn for the common of this my lond, for the true hertes and tender consideracions that ye have had unto the coronne of this reame, the which from us have been long time withholde." 1 Parl. Hist. 419. † Parl. Hist. 422. For several months in the autumn of this year he was CHAP. XXIII abroad, on an embassy to remonstrate against the countenance given to Lancastrians at foreign courts; and during Chancellor his absence the Great Seal was in the custody of Kirkham, abroad on the Master of the Rolls.* On the 10th of April, 1464, the Chancellor being about to leave London for Newcastle on public business, the Great Seal was again intrusted to the Master of the Rolls, who was directed by writ of privy seal to keep it till the 14th of May, and on that day to deliver it to Richard Fryston and William Moreland, to be conveyed to the Chancellor. They accordingly delivered it back to the Chancellor at York, on his return to London. an embassy. 1464. with Ne Things went on very smoothly for several years, till the March, quarrel of Edward IV. with the house of Neville, arising out Edward's of his marriage with the fair widow, the Lady Grey, while the rupture Earl of Warwick, by his authority, was employed in nego- villes. tiating an alliance between him and the Lady Bona of Savoy. The rupture was soon widened by the new Queen, who, regarding the Nevilles as her mortal enemies, was eager to depress them, and to aggrandise her own kindred. dismissed from office cellor. In consequence, George Neville was dismissed from the Neville office of Lord Chancellor. On the 8th of June, 1467, the King abruptly demanded the Great Seal from him, and gave of Chanit to John de Audley to carry to the palace. The next day it was delivered to the Master of the Rolls, without any Chancellor over him, but with a declaration, "that he was not to use it except in the presence of the Earl of Essex, Lord Hastings, Sir John Fagge, and Sir John Scotte, or of one of them; and after each day's sealing, it was to be put into a bag, which was to be sealed with those who were present at the scaling, and the Master of the Rolls was every day, before night, to deliver the seal so enclosed to one of the persons above mentioned, and to receive it again the next morning, to be used in the manner here recited.† *Rot. Cl. 4 Ed. 4. Rot. Cl. 7 Ed. 4. m. 12. It had not been unusual to impose such restrictions on persons holding the seal without being Chancellor, but the Chancellor always had the unlimited use of it, upon his responsibility to the King and to Parliament. CHAP. June 20. TON, Chan- Subsequent career of Ex-chancellor Neville. A. D. 1470. The ruling party had not determined who should be the new Chancellor when Neville was dismissed, and an interval of ten days elapsed before the choice was made-employed no doubt in intrigues among the Queen's friends, from whom he was to be selected. At last, on the 20th of June, it was announced that ROBERT STILLINGTON, Bishop of Bath and Wells, was appointed Chancellor, and the Great Seal was delivered to him.* But before entering on his history, we must take a final leave of Ex-chancellor Neville. He now harboured the deepest resentment against Edward, and entered into all the cabals of his brother the "King-maker," who was secretly leagued with Queen Margaret and the Lancastrians, and wished to unmake the king he had made. Both brothers, however, attempted to conceal their wishes and designs, and at times pretended great devotion for the reigning Sovereign. In 1469, Edward in a progress passing through York, was invited by the Archbishop, his Ex-chancellor, to a great feast at the archiepiscopal palace. He accepted the invitation; but as he sat at table he perceived symptoms which suddenly induced him to suspect that the Archbishop's retainers intended to seize his person, or to murder him. He abruptly left the entertainment, called for his guards, and retreated. When in the following year the civil war was openly renewed, and the Earl of Warwick, by one of the most sudden revolutions in history, was complete master of the kingdom, it is said that Edward was for a time in the custody of the Archbishop, who, however, used him with great respect, not restraining him from the diversions of hunting and walking abroad, by which means Edward made his escape, and soon A. D. 1471. after recovered his crown. Upon the counter-revolution, the Archbishop was surprised in his palace at Whitehall, and sent to the Tower; but on account of his sacred character was soon after set at liberty, although he had been repeatedly guilty of high treason, by imagining the King's death, and Being detected in new A. D. 1472. levying war against him in his realm. Rot. Cl. 7. Ed. 4. m. 12. |