the commencement of his war until now; and that the rolls and other remembrances, obligations, and other things made abroad be delivered into the chancery, to be enrolled and recorded, just as was wont to be done heretofore. 38. Item, as to the second article, that is to say, of auditing accounts of those who have received the wool of the king, and other aids, etc. It is the king's pleasure that this be done by good men deputed for the purpose, with the addition that the treasurer and the chief baron be of the number: and that it be done concerning this as it was heretofore ordained; and that the lords be chosen in this parliament. And also that all rolls, remembrances, and obligations made beyond the sea, be delivered into the chancery. 62. An Act to secure the Rights of Peers and Others, and to secure the Responsibility of the King's Ministers (May, 1341. French text and translation, I S. R. 295. 2 Stubbs, 409.) I. FIRST, it is accorded and assented, that the franchise of holy Church, and the Great Charter, and the Charter of the Forest, and the other statutes made by our sovereign lord the king and his progenitors, peers, and the commons of the land, for the common profit of the people, be firmly kept and maintained in all points. And if anything be from henceforth made against the Great Charter, and the Charter of the Forest it shall be declared in the next parliament, and by the peers of the realm it shall be duly redressed. And if any, of what condition he be, do any thing to the contrary, he shall stand to the judgment of the peers in the next parliament, and so from parliament to parliament, as well of franchises used, as of them which shall be now granted; and that the franchises granted by our sovereign lord the king, or his progenitors, to holy Church, to the peers of the land, to the city of London and to other cities and boroughs, and to them of the five ports, and to the commons of the land, and all their franchises and free customs shall be maintained in all points, without any thing doing to the contrary. And that the writs demanded to have allowance of charters, of franchises and customs, charters of pardons, of debts, and of all other things granted by the king, and by his progenitors before this time, be freely granted without disturbance before all manner justices, or other ministers where it needeth to have allowance, and they shall be made quit at the exchequer, or elsewhere. 2. Item, whereas before this time the peers of the land have been arrested and imprisoned, and their temporalties, lands and tenements, goods and chattels, asseised in the king's hands, and some put to death without judgment of their peers: it is accorded and assented that no peer of the land, officer or other, because of his office, nor of things touching his office, nor by other cause shall be brought in judgment to lose his temporalties, lands, tenements, goods and chattels, nor to be arrested, nor imprisoned, outlawed, exiled, nor forejudged, nor put to answer, nor to be judged, but by award of the said peers in the parliament. Saving always to our sovereign lord the king, and his heirs in other cases the laws rightfully used, and by due process, and saved also the suit of the parties. And if perchance any peer will, of his agreement, elsewhere answer or be judged, but in the parliament, that the same shall not turn in prejudice of the other peers, nor of himself in any other case; except if any of the peers be sheriff or fermer of fee, or hath been officer, or hath received money, or other chattels of the king, because of which office or receipt he is bound to account, that the same shall account by himself or by his attorney in places accustomed; so that the pardons before this time made in the parliament, shall stand in their force. 3. Item, because that the points of the Great Charter be blemished in divers manners, and less well holden than they ought to be, to the great peril and slander of the king, and damage of his people especially inasmuch as clerks, peers of the land, and other free men be arrested and imprisoned, and ousted of their goods and chattels, who were not appealed nor endited, nor suit of the party against them affirmed: it is accorded and assented, that from henceforth such things shall not be done. And if any minister of the king, or other person, of what condition he be, do or come against any point of the Great Charter, or other statutes, or the laws of the land, he shall answer in the parliament, as well at the king's suit, as at the suit of the party, where no remedy nor punishment was ordained before this time, as far forth where it was done by commission or commandment of the king, as of his own authority, notwithstanding the ordinance made before this time at Northampton, which by assent of the king, the prelates, earls, barons, and the commonalty of the land, in this present parliament is repealed and utterly annulled. And that the chancellor, treasurer, barons, and chancellor of the exchequer, the justices of the one bench and of the other, justices assigned in the country, steward and chamberlain of the king's house, keeper of the privy seal, treasurer of the wardrobe, controllers, and they that be chief deputed to abide nigh the king's son duke of Cornwall, shall be now sworn in this parliament, and so from henceforth at all times that they shall be put in office, to keep and maintain the privileges and franchises of holy Church, and the points of the Great Charter, and the Charter of the Forest, and all other statutes, without breaking any point. 4. Item, it is assented, that if any of the officers aforesaid, or controllers, or chief clerk in the common bench, or in the king's bench, by death or by other cause be ousted of his office, that our sovereign lord the king, by the accord of the great men, which shall be found most nighest in the country, which he shall take towards him, and by the good counsel which he shall have about him, shall put another convenient in the said office; who shall be sworn after the form aforesaid. And that in every parliament, at the third day of the same parliament, the king shall take in his hands the offices of all the ministers aforesaid, and so shall they abide four or five days; except the offices of justices of the one place or the other, justices assigned, barons of the exchequer; so always that they and all other ministers be put to answer to every complaint; and if default be found in any of the said ministers, by complaint or other manner, and of that he be attainted in parliament, he shall be punished by judgment of the peers, and put out of his office, and another convenient put in his place. And upon the same our sovereign lord the king shall do to be pronounced and made execution without delay according to the judgment of the said peers in the parliament. 63. Revocation of the Preceding Statute (October, 1341. Latin text and translation, I S. R. 297. 2 Stubbs, 410.) THE HE king to the sheriff of Lincoln, Greeting. Whereas at our parliament summoned at Westminster in the quinzime of Easter last past, certain articles expressly contrary to the laws and customs of our realm of England, and to our prerogatives and rights royal were pretended to be granted by us by the manner of a statute; we, considering how that by the bond of our oath we be tied to the observance and defence of such laws, customs, rights, and prerogatives, and providently willing to revoke and call again such things to a due state, which be so improvidently done, upon conference and treatise thereupon had with the earls, barons, and other wise men of our said realm, and because we never consented to the making of the said pretended statute, but as then it behoved us, we dissimulated in the premises, protests being before made for the revoking of the said statute, if indeed it should proceed, to eschew the dangers which by the denying of the same we feared to come, forasmuch as the said parliament otherwise had been, without dispatching anything, in discord dissolved, and so our earnest business had likely been ruinated, which God prohibit, and the said pretended statute we permitted then to be sealed: it seemed to the said earls, barons, and other wise men, that since the said statute did not of our free will proceed, the same should be void, and ought not to have the name nor strength of a statute; and therefore by their counsel and assent we have decreed the said statute to be void, and the same, in so far as it proceeded of deed, we have agreed to be annulled; willing nevertheless, that the articles contained in the said pretended statute which by other of our statutes, or of our progenitors kings of England, have been approved, shall, according to the form of the said statutes in every point, as convenient is, be observed; and the same we do, only to the conservation and reintegration of the rights of our crown, as we be bound, and not that we should in any wise grieve or oppress our subjects, whom we desire to rule by lenity and gentleness. And therefore we do command thee, that all these things thou cause to be openly proclaimed in such places within thy bailiwick where thou shalt see expedient. Witness myself at Westminster the first day of October, the fifteenth year of our reign. By the king himself and his council. 64. An Act regulating the Coinage (May, 1343. French text and translation, I S. R. 299. 2 Stubbs, 413.) ITEN [TEM, it is accorded to make money of good sterling in England of the weight and alloy of the ancient sterling, which "shall be current in England between the great men and commons of the land, and the which shall not be carried out of the realm of England in any manner, nor for any cause whatsoever; and in case that the Flemings will make good money of silver groats or other, according in alloy with good sterling, that such money shall be current in England between merchant and merchant, and others who of their own accord will receive the same; so that no silver be carried out of the realm. 65. Attempts to Tax though the Merchants resisted (May, 1343. French text, 2 R. P. 140. Translation by Editors. 28. ITEM, that the male tote of wool remain at half a mark as was used in the time of the king's progenitors and as it was granted by statute during the king's own reign. And seeing that the merchants of themselves have granted, without the assent of the commons, a subsidy of forty shillings on each sack of wool besides the lawful maletote of half a mark, you will, if it is your pleasure, have regard that it is all to the charge and to the mischief of your commons. Wherefore, if it is your pleasure, you will not suffer this mischief, but you will rather amend it at this parliament, for it is against reason, that the commons should be charged of their goods by the merchants. The intent of our lord the king is not to charge the commons with the subsidy which the merchants have granted him, nor may it be regarded as a charge on the commons. Particularly inasmuch as the commons have put a certain price upon the wool throughout the counties; which price the king wills to continue, and that within this price no wool shall be bought upon forfeiture of the same wool in the hands of the merchants who purchased the same. IT 66. Grant of a Subsidy for Two Years (June, 1344. French text and translation, I S. R. 300. 2 Stubbs, 414.) T is to be remembered, that at the parliament holden at Westminster, the Monday next after the utas of the Holy Trinity, the year of reign of our sovereign lord the king that now is of |