princes. The exhaustion of the kingdom through the protracted wars of the roses, and the almost entire annihilation of the greater English nobility, enabled the Tudors to rule with a despotism unknown to their predecessors. The period of the Plantagenets forms, on the whole, one of the most important and interesting epochs of English history. In it were established all those institutions by which our liberties are secured. The leading political feature which it presents is the gradual development of the English Constitution out of feudalism. The first ostensible act which marks our regenerated na tionality is the Great Charter wrung from the pusillanimous and tyrannical John. "From this era," says Mr. Hallam,* “ a new soul was infused into the people of England. Her liberties, at the best long in abeyance, became a tangible possession; and those indefinite aspirations for the laws of Edward the Confessor were changed into a steady regard for the Great Charter." In the subsequent struggles for our liberties Magna Charta was repeatedly appealed to as their foundation, and repeatedly confirmed by the acts of different sovereigns. The weak and long reign of John's successor, Henry III., served to foster the infancy of English freedom. It appears from the writings of Bracton, who filled the office of a judge toward the conclusion of that reign, that the royal prerogative was even in those early days defined and limited by law. Not only was the king considered by that writer as subject to the law, but also to his court of earls and barons; who, indeed, before the existence of Parliament, were the law-makers. The establishment of the last-named great council of the nation forms, in a constitutional point of view, the chief glory of the Plantagenet era; the main facts of its origin and progress are indicated at the close of this book. The § 14. From the Constitution we naturally turn our view to those who were its subjects. As early at least as the reign of Henry III., the legal equality of all freemen below the rank of the peerage appears to have been completely established. civil rights of individuals were protected by that venerable body of ancient customs, which, under the name of the common law, still obtains in our courts of justice. Its origin is lost in the obscurity of remote antiquity. A very small portion of it may be traced to the Saxon times; but the greater part must have sprung up since the Conquest, since we find the pecuniary penalties which marked the Saxon legislation exchanged in criminal cases for capital punishment. The law was administered under the Plantagenets by three courts, which still exist the King's Bench, the Common Pleas, and the Exchequer the origin of which has been narrated in the history of the Anglo-Norman Constitution. *Middle Ages, ii., p. 329. CHAP. XII. PROGRESS OF THE NATION. 237 It is difficult to trace the steps by which villenage was gradually mitigated under the Plantagenets; but on the whole it is certain that at the termination of that dynasty it had almost entirely disappeared. Tenants in villenage were gradually transformed into copyholders. Villeins bound to personal service escaped to distant parts of the country, where they could not easily be traced and reclaimed, and entered into free and voluntary service under a new master. Others hid themselves in towns, where a residence of a twelvemonth made them free by law. Something must also be attributed to manumissions. The influence of the Church was exerted in behalf of this degraded class: and the repentant lord was exhorted by his spiritual adviser to give freedom to his fellow Christians. As public opinion became more enlightened and humane, the courts of law leaned to the side of the oppressed peasantry in all suits in which their rights were concerned. In the reign of Edward III. regular statutes were framed for the protection of artisans and husbandmen. The popular insurrection in the time of Richard II. betrays an advance in the condition of the lower classes; and though it shows a great amount of villenage, discovers at the same time a vast extension of freedom. § 15. With regard to the general progress of the nation, we perceive under the sway of the Plantagenets a notable increase in its wealth and intelligence as well as in its freedom. The woolen manufactures were established in various parts of England, and began to supply foreign nations. In the reign of Edward III. the English were remarkable for their excellence in the arts of peace as well as of war. A rich literature had been produced, adorned with the names of Chaucer and Gower, of Wickliffe and Mandeville; while in matters of religion, the principles of the Reformation were already developed and promulgated. Assisted by the invention of printing, which was introduced into England in the reign of Edward IV., this progress might have gone on to the most happy results, had not certain events occurred to retard it. Henry IV., in order to support his usurpation of the crown, found it expedient to court the established Church, and to crush the Reformation of Wickliffe, which had also compromised itself by the excesses of some of its followers. The wars of Henry V. diverted the attention. of the English from domestic to foreign affairs; while the civil disturbances which ensued under Henry IV., being concerned merely about a dynasty, and involving not, like those under the Stuarts, any great public principle, served only to damp the genius and energies of the nation, and disposed it to bend under the tyranny of its subsequent monarchs. The population at the end of the reign of the Plantagenets probably amounted to about three millions. A.D. CHRONOLOGY OF REMARKABLE EVENTS. A. D. 1461. Edward IV. assumes the crown. Bat- 1478. The Duke of Clarence put to death. tle of Towton. 1483. Death of Edward IV, and accession of Edward V. The young king and his brother Richard are confined and then murdered in the Tower, and their uncle, the Protector Richard III., assumes the crown. Warwick defeated The Earl of Richmond lands, defeats, and slays Richard at Bosworth, and assumes the crown with the title of Henry VII. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PARLIAMENT. This subject has been briefly adverted to in the preceding narrative, but its importance demands a more detailed account. The word Parliament (parlement or colloquium as some of our historians translate it) is derived from the French, and signifies an assembly that meets and confers together. This name is first applied by a contemporary chronicler to a Great Council of the nation summoned in 1246. The constituent parts of a Parliament are now, and were under the later Plantagenet kings, the sovereign and the three estate of the realm, the lords spiritual, the lords temporal (who sit together with their sovereign in one house), and the commons, who sit by themselves in another. The Parliament, as so constituted, is an outgrowth of the Great Council of the realm, held under the Anglo-Norman kings, the constitution of which has been already explained [p. 130]. It will be convenient to trace separately the history of each house. I. THE HOUSE OF LORDS.-The spiritual peerage consisted originally of archbishops, bishops, and abbots; and the lay peerage only of barons and earls, but every earl was also a baron. For more than two centuries after the Norman conquest the only baronies known were baronies by tenure, being incident to the tenure of land held immediately under the crown. Hence the right of peerage was originally territorial, being annexed to certain lands, and, when they were alienated, passing with them as an appendant. Thus in 11 Hen. VL the possession of the Castle of Arundel was adjudged to confer an earldom "by tenure" on its possessor. Afterward, when the alienations of land became frequent, and the number of those who held of the king in capite increased, it became the practice, either in the reign of John or Henry III., for the king to summon to the Great Council, by Writ, all such persons as he thought fit so to summon. In this way the dignity of the peerage became personal instead of territorial. Proof of a tenure by barony became no longer necessary, and the record of the writ of summons came to be sufficient evidence to constitute a peer. The third mode of creating peers is by Letters Patent from the crown, in which the descent of the dignity is regulated, being usually confined to heirs male. The first peer created by patent was in the reign of Richard II. It is still the practice to call up the eldest son of a peer to the House of Lords by writ of summons in the name of his father's barony; but with this exception, peers are now always created by letters patent. The first instance in which earls and barons are called peers is in 14 Edw. II. (1321), in the award of exile against the Despensers. The degrees of nobility are dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons. 1. The title of Duke or dux was used among the Anglo-Saxons as a title of dignity; but as William the Conqueror and his successors were dukes of Normandy, they would not honor any subject with the title till the reign of Edward III, who, claiming to be King of France, created his eldest son Edward, the Black Prince, Duke of Cornwall. Several of the royal family subsequently received the title of duke. 2. The title of Marquess or marchio was originally applied to a Lord Marcher, or lord of the frontier districts, called the marches, from the Teutonic word marche, a limit; but it was first created a parliamentary dignity by Richard II, who made Robert de Vere Marquess of Dublin. 3. An Earl corresponded to the Saxon Ealdorman or Alderman, who originally had the administration of a county. Under the administration of the Norman kings the title became merely personal, though the earl continued to receive a third penny of the emoluments arising from the pleas in the county courts. In Latin the earl was called Comes, and after the Norman conquest Count, whenco the name county is still applied to the shires; but the title of count never superseded the more ancient designation of earl, and soon fell into disuse. The title of earl continued to be the highest hereditary dignity till the reign of Edward III. 4. The dignity of Viscount or Vice-Comes was borrowed from France, and was first conferred by Henry VI., who had been crowned King of France. 5. The title of Baron has been already explained. [See p. 130.] II. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.-The members of the House of Commons consist of the knights of the shires, and the burgesses, or CHAP. XII. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. representatives of the cities and boroughs. The origin of the knights of the shires must be traced to the clause in the charter of John, by which the sheriff was bound to summon to the Great Council all the inferior tenants in chief. How long these inferior tenants continued to sit personally in Parliament can not be determined; but, as their attendance was vexatious to themselves and disagreeable to the king, it became the practice for them to send representatives at an early period, perhaps in the reign of John, certainly in the reign of Henry III. But the principle of representation was finally established in the celebrated Parliament summoned by Simon de Montfort in the 49th of Henry III. (1265), when writs were issued to all the sheriffs, commanding them to return two knights from each shire, and two citizens or burgesses for every city and borough contained in each shire. This is the true epoch of the House of Commons. A question arises into which our limits prevent us from entering, whether the knights were still elected by the tenants in chief alone, or by all the freeholders in the county court; but the latter is more probable. That the representation of cities and boroughs can not be traced earlier than the Parliament of Simon de Montfort is now generally admitted. From this time till the 23d of Edward I. (1295) the representatives of the cities and boroughs were occasionally summoned; but they were not permanently ingrafted upon Parliament till the latter date, when the expenses of Edward, arising from his foreign wars, led him to have recourse to this means for obtaining supplies of money. [See p. 161.] The success of the experiment insured its repetition; and the king found that he could more readily obtain larger sums of money by the subsidies of the citizens and burgesses than he had previously obtained by tallages upon their towns. The necessity of summoning the citizens and burgesses became still greater after the Confirmatio Chartarum in 1297, when the king renounced the right of levying tallages upon the towns. [See p. 154.] It must be recollected that the only object of summoning the citizens and burgesses was to obtain money, and that it was not intended to give them the power of consenting to the laws. But gradually the power of the purse gave them a share in the legislation, and the statement of Mr. Hallam can not be denied, that the liberties of England were to a great extent purchased by the money of our forefathers. It is doubtful at what time Parliament was divided into two houses. At first they seem to have sat in the same chamber; but from the earliest times they voted separately, and imposed separate taxes, each upon its own order. The knights of the shires voted at first with the earls and barons; but in the reign of Edward II. the houses were probably divided as we now find them, and in the first year of Edward III. this was certainly the care. The Commons soon obtained the right to petition for redress of grievances; and as early as the reign of Edward II. it was en 239 acted that the king should hold a Parliament at least once a year. Under this weak monarch the Commons were not slow in exer. cising their rights; and the rolls of Parliament show that the Commons granted supplies on condition that the king should redress the grievances of which they complained. Gradually the assent of the Commons came to be considered necessary for the enactment of laws; and in the long and prosperous reign of Edward III. the three essential principles of our government, as Mr. Hallam calls them, were established upon a firm footing: the illegality of raising money without consent of Parliament; the neccessity that the two houses should concur for any alterations in the law; and, lastly, the right of the Commons to inquire into public abuses, and to impeach public counselors. With regard to the second constitutional principle mentioned above, we find that in the reign of Edward III. laws were declared to be made by the king at the request of the Commons, and by the assent of the Lords. The practice was that the petitions of the Commons, with the respective answers made to them in the king's name, were drawn up after the end of the session in the form of laws, and entered upon the statute-roll. But still it must be observed that the statutes do not always express the true sense of the Commons, as their petitions were frequently modified and otherwise altered by the king's answers. The first important instance in which the Commons exercised the third constitutional principle alluded to was toward the end of the reign of Edward III, when, supported by the Black Prince, they impeached Lord Latimer, and the other ministers of the king, the instruments of the Duke of Lancaster and Alice Perrers, who had acquired an ascendency over Edward. Under the reign of Richard II. the power of the House of Commons made still farther progress, which was continued under the three kings of the house of Lancaster, who owed their throne to a parliamentary title. Among the rights established under these kings the two following were the most important: 1. The introduction, in the reign of Henry VI., of complete statutes under the name of bills, instead of the old petitions, to which the king gave his consent, and which he was not at liberty to alter, as he had done in the case of petitions. We have already seen that all statutes at first orginated by petitions of the House of Commons; but it now became the practice for either house to originate a bill, except in the case of money bills, which continued to be originated exclusively by the Commons. 2. That the king ought not to take notice of matters pending in Parliament, and that the Commons should enjoy liberty of speech. The persons who had the right of voting for knights of the shire were declared by 8 Hen. VI., c. 7 to be all freeholders of lands and tenements of the annual value of 408., equivalent at least to £20 of our value; which was a limitation of the number of voters, since it would appear from 7 Hen. IV. c. 15 that all persons whatever, pre.cnt at the county court, had previously the right of voting for the knights of their shires. For farther particulars the reader may consult as to the House of Lords Sir Harris Nicolas, The Historic Peerage of England, the Introduction in the edit. of 1857; as to the House of Commons, Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. iii., c. 8; and as to both houses, The Student's Blackstone, by Kerr, p. 97, seq., 429, seq. B. AUTHORITIES FOR THE PERIOD OF THE PLANTAGENETS FROM JOHN TO RICHARD III. A reference to note C, appended to chap. vii. [p. 132], will show what histories already mentioned extend into this period. In addition may be named the Annals of Dunstaple to 1297; Walter of Hemingford, Lives of the Edwards; John Trokelow, Annales Edwardi II, with a continuation by Henry Blaneford; Robert of Avesbury, Historia de Mirabilibus Gestis Edwardi 111.; the Monk of Evesham, Hist. Vitae et Regni Ricardi II.; Otterbourne's Chronicle, from Brute to 1420; Whethamstede's Chronicle, 1441 to 1460; Elmham, Vita et Gesta Henrici V.; Titus Livius, idem.; William of Worcester, Annales Rerum Anglicarum, 1324 to 1491; Rous, Historia Regum Anglia (to 1485). The preceding works are published in Hearne's collection. The fellowing are in the collection of Hall: Nich The fol olas Trivet, Annales sex regum Angliæ, 1135 to 1318; Adam Murimuth, Chronicle (with continuation), 1303 to 1380. The Chronicle of Lanercost, published by the Bannatyne Club, extends from 1201 to 1346. lowing are in Camden's Anglica, etc.: Thos. De la More, De Vita et Morte Edwardi II.; Walsingham, Historia brevis Angliæ, 1273 to 1423. The same author's Hypodigma Neustria, containing an account of the affairs of Normandy to Henry V., is also in Camden. Froissart's Chroniques is an interesting but not very trustworthy work for the times of Edward III. and Richard II. The Chroniques of Monstrelet (1400 to 1467) and the Mémoires de Comines (1461 to 1498) may also be consulted for foreign affairs during the later Plantagenets. The early printed chronicles which treat of this period, with the exception of Fabyan's (to 1509) and Hardyng's (to 1538), are not contemporary. The principal are those of Hall, Grafton, Holinshed, and Stowe. Sir Thos. More's History of Richard 111. is the best authority for that period: he was old enough to have heard the facts from contemporaries, and especially from Bishop Morton, in whose service he had lived. Indeed, Sir Henry Ellis is of opinion (Pref. to Hardyng) that this work was in reality composed by Morton. |