*** the party shall be endamaged because of such taking or delay, and 75. Protest of Parliament against Legislation (October, 1353. French text, 2 R. P. 253. Translation by Editors. 42. ITEM, because many articles touching the estate of the As to the tenth article, it is the king's pleasure that all the ordinances made of the staple be published and proclaimed in each county of England and in each place where the staples are, to the end that they be firmly kept. And at the next parliament, for greater surety, that they be rehearsed and put on the roll of parliament. act of shewsbury. 8:159 76. Certain Ordinances confirmed by Parliament (May, 1354. French text, 2 R. P. 257. Translation by Editors. 2 Stubbs, 429.) 16. AND So the said commons prayed in this parliament, that the ordinances of the staple and all the other ordinances made at the last council held at Westminster the Monday after the feast of Saint Matthew the apostle last past, which they had considered with good deliberation and counsel and which seemed to them good and profitable for our lord the king and all his people, be affirmed in this parliament and held for a statute to endure forever. To which prayer the king and all the great men unanimously agreed, as at all times, that if anything is to be added it shall be added, or if anything is to be repealed it shall be repealed in parliament, whenever it shall be necessary, and in no other manner. 77. An Act concerning Justices of the Peace (February, 1361. French text and translation, 1 S. R. 364. 2 Stubbs, 286.) 1. FIRST, that in every county of England shall be assigned for the keeping of the peace, one lord, and with him three or four of the most worthy in the county, with some learned in the law, and they shall have power to restrain the offenders, rioters, and all other barrators, and to pursue, arrest, take, and chastise them according their trespass or offence; and to cause them to be imprisoned and duly punished according to the law and customs of the realm, and according to that which to them shall seem best to do by their discretions and good advisement; and also to inform them, and to inquire of all those that have been pillors and robbers in the parts beyond the sea, and be now come again, and go wandering, and will not labor as they were wont in times past; and to take and arrest all those that they may find by indictment, or by suspicion, and to put them in prison; and to take of all them that be not of good fame, where they shall be found, sufficient surety and mainprise of their good behavior towards the king and his people, and the other duly to punish; to the intent that the people be not by such rioters or rebels troubled nor endamaged, nor the peace blemished, nor merchants nor other passing by the highways of the realm disturbed, nor put in fear by peril which might happen of such offenders; and also to hear and determine at the king's suit all manner of felonies and trepasses done in the same county according to the laws and customs aforesaid; and that writs of oyer and determiner be granted according to the statutes thereof made, and that the justices which shall be thereto assigned be named by the court, and not by the party. And the king will, that all general inquiries before this time granted within any seignories, for the mischiefs and oppressions which have been done to the people by such inquiries, shall cease utterly and be repealed: and that fines, which are to be made before justices for a trespass done by any person, be reasonable and just, having regard to the quantity of the trespass, and the causes for which they may be made. یو 78. Purveyance, English to be used in the t Courts, etc. (November, 1362. French text and translation, 1 S. R. 371. 2 Stubbs, 434.) 2. ITEM, for the grievous complaint which hath been made of purveyors of victuals of the houses of the king, the queen, their eldest son, and of other lords and ladies of the realm, the king of his own will, without motion of the great men or commons, hath granted and ordained in ease of his people, that from henceforth no man of the said realm shall have any taking, but only himself and the queen his companion; and moreover, of the assent aforesaid, it is ordained and established, that upon such purveyances from henceforth to be made for the houses of the king and the queen, ready payment shall be made in hand, that is to say, the price for which such victuals be sold commonly in the markets about: II. Item, the king by the assent aforesaid having regard to the great subsidy that the commons have granted now in this parlia ment, of wools, leather, and woolfells to be taken for three years, wills and grants that after the said term passed, nothing be taken nor demanded of the said commons, but only the ancient custom of half a mark; nor that this grant now made, or which hath been made in times past, shall not be had in example nor charge of the said commons in time to come: and that the merchants denizens may pass with their wools as well as the foreigns, without being restrained; and that no subsidy, nor other charge, be set nor granted upon the wools, by the merchants nor by none other from henceforth, without the assent of the parliament. 12. Item, that in the commissions of justices of the peace, and of laborers, express mention be made, that the same justices make their sessions four times by the year, that is to say, one session within the utas of the Epiphany, the second within the second week of Mid-Lent, the third betwixt the feasts of Pentecost and of Saint John Baptist, the fourth within the eight days of Saint Michael. 15. Item, because it is often showed to the king by the prelates dukes earls, barons, and all the commonalty, of the great mischiefs which have happened to divers of the realm, because the laws, customs, and statutes of this realm be not commonly known in the same realm, for that they be pleaded, showed, and judged in the French tongue, which is much unknown in the said realm; so that the people which do implead, or be impleaded, in the king's court, and in the courts of other have no knowledge nor understanding of that which is said for them or against them by their sergeants and other pleaders; and that reasonably the said laws and customs shall be the more soon learned and known, and better understood in the tongue used in the said realm, and by so much every man of the said realm may the better govern himself without offending of the law, and the better keep, save, and defend his heritage and possessions; and in divers regions and countries where the king, the nobles, and other of the said realm have been, good governance and full right is done to every person, because that their laws and customs be learned and used in the tongue of the country: the king, desiring the good governance and tranquillity of his people, and to put out and eschew the harms and mischiefs which do or may happen in this behalf by the occasions aforesaid, hath ordained and established by the assent aforesaid, that all pleas which shall be pleaded in his court whatsoever, before any of his justices whatsoever, or in his other K places, or before any of his other ministers whatsoever, or in the courts and places of any other lords whatsoever within the realm, shall be pleaded, showed, defended, answered, debated, and judged in the English tongue, and that they be entered and inrolled in Latin; and that the laws and customs of the same realm, terms, and processes, be holden and kept as they be and have been before this time; and that by the ancient terms and form of pleaders no man be prejudiced, so that the matter of the action be fully showed in the declaration and in the writ: and it is accorded by the assent aforesaid, that this ordinance and statute of pleading begin and hold place at the fifteenth of Saint Hilary next coming. 7. نها 79. Refusal of Tribute to the Pope (May, 1366. French text, 2 R. P. 290. Translation by Editors. *** HE (the chancellor) told them how the king had heard that the pope, by force of an agreement which he said that king John had made with the pope, to do him homage for the realm of England and the land of Ireland, and that by reason of the said homage, he ought to pay each year forever a thousand marks, is minded to institute process against the king and his realm for the said service and to recover the tribute. Wherefore the king prayed the said prelates, dukes, earls, and barons for their advice and good council, as to what he should do in case the pope should proceed against him or his said realm for that cause. And the prelates asked the king to allow them to take counsel by themselves alone and to answer on the morrow. On the said morrow, first the prelates by themselves, and then the other dukes, earls, barons, and great men answered and said, that neither the said king John, nor any other could put himself nor his realm nor his people in such subjection, without their assent and accord. And the commons having been questioned upon this and having taken counsel answered in like manner. |