near the conclusion of the reign of Edward III. In 1371 he was appointed Treasurer of the King's Exchequer. On the accession of Richard II. he was promoted to be Steward of the King's household, and it was in this capacity that he was employed to address the two Houses, and that he so much distinguished himself in the last two parliaments. Although with little book-learning, he had so much natural talent, and had seen so much of the world, and had such a quick insight into character, that he was reckoned a consummate practical statesman, as well as a distinguished military commander; and his appointment to the office of Chancellor, if it astonished, did not much offend, the public. The Close Roll tells us that the following day he held a seal in the church of St. Mary le Crypt at Gloucester, and I read no more of his judicial exploits.* That he might more effectually assist the government in the House of Lords, he was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Scrope of Bolton, in the county of York. Here he had a large domain, and, under a license from the crown, he erected a strong castle, which stood several sieges, and was afterwards more illustrated by being one of the prisons of Mary, Queen of Scots. In the parliament which met at Westminster on the 14th of January, 1379, he very ably expounded the causes of the summons, was much applauded for his eloquence, and obtained a large supply for the King. The Commons prayed that there might not be another parliament till a year after that time, and that the Chancellor, the Treasurer, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Chief Chamberlain, and Steward of the household, might not be changed in the meanwhile. At the same time they made a complaint of the interference of the Court of Chancery and of the Council with the course of the common law. The answer was, "that parties should be sent to the proper court to answer according to due course of law; provided always, that where the King and his Council should be credibly informed that by maintenance, oppression, and other outrages, the common law could not have due course, the Council in such case might send for the party against whom the complaint is made, and put him to answer for the misprision."‡ We are not informed of the particulars of the intrigue which, on the 2d of July, 1379, put an end to the first Chancellorship of Lord Scrope; and we only know, from the Close Roll, that on that day he surrendered the Great Seal, and that on the 4th of July the King delivered it to SIMON DE SUDBURY, Archbishop of Can[A. D. 1379.] terbury, who, having taken the oaths, was the day following installed as Chancellor in Westminster Hall.§ Simon de Sudbury assumed that name from the town in Suffolk where he happened to be born. Yet was he of noble extraction, being the son of Nigel Theobald, of a baronial family, whose founder had come over with the Conqueror. Having been carefully educated in England, he was sent by his father beyond sea to study the civil law, * Rot. Cl. 2 Ric. 2, m. 25. Rot. Parl. 2 Ric. 2. † 1 Parl. Hist. 169, 170. of which he became a Doctor, after disputations in several Continental universities. Such was his fame as a wrangler, that he was admitted of the Council to Innocent VI. and Auditor of the Rota in the Court of Rome. On the recommendation of the Pope, he had great promotion when he returned home to his own country, being made Chancellor of Sarum, then Bishop of London, and, in 1375, translated to the see of Canterbury. He called forth some censure by accepting the Great Seal; for, though there were many precedents of a Chancellor becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, it was not thought consistent with the dignity of the church that an Archbishop of Canterbury should become Chancellor. It would have been well if he had confined himself to the discharge of his ecclesiastical duties, as, by engaging in politics, he was brought to an untimely and violent end. He opened the parliament, which met at Northampton, at the feast of All Saints, 1380, and, after much difficulty, and management, prevailed upon the Commons to grant the fatal "capitation [A. D. 1380.] tax," which was to be "three groats of every person of the kingdom, male or female, of the age of fifteen, of what state or condition soever." This was denounced as "a new and strange subsidy," and Hollingshead writes, that "great grudging and many a bitter curse followed on the levying of this money, and that much mischief rose thereof, as after did appear." If the insult had not been offered by the tax-gatherer to the daughter of Wat Tyler, some other accidental spark would probably have thrown the whole country into a flame. The Chancellor being the author of the abhorred tax, in the rebellion which it excited, he was the first victim. John Ball, the famous seditious preacher, inveighed bitterly against him by name, and, in reference to his aristocratic birth, the often-quoted lines were made which, Hume says, "in spite of prejudice, we cannot but regard with some degree of approbation." "When Adam delv'd and Eve span, Where was then the gentleman ?" The army, or rather mob, 100,000 strong, under Tyler and Straw, having taken post at Blackheath, and threatening general destructionmore especially to lawyers,* and all who were supposed to have been *Walsingham, in his interesting relation of Wat Tyler's rebellion, says :"Voluit namque ad alia commissionem pro se et suis obtinuisse, ad decollandum omnes juridicos et universos qui vel in lege docti fuere vel cum jure ratione officii communicavere. Mente nempe conceperat, doctis in lege necatis, universa juxta communis plebis scitum de cætero ordinari, et nullam omnino legem fore futuram vel si futura foret, esse pro suorum arbitrio statuenda."-Walsingham, p. 361. So in Cade's rebellion, Temp. Hen. 6:— Dick. The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Cade. Nay, that I mean to do." (And proceeds to give his reasons.) Shak. Second Part Hen. VI. a. iv. s. 2. In the riots of 1780, a similar spirit was displayed, and siege was laid to the inns of court, with the intention of exterminating the whole race of lawyers, that "the skin of an innocent lamb might no longer be converted into an indictment." instrumental in imposing the tax, or who resisted the demands for its repeal, the Chancellor took refuge in the Tower of London. They pursued him thither, attacked this fortress, and it being feebly defended, they soon stormed it. They instantly seized him, and dragged him to Tower Hill, with the declared intention of executing him there as a traitor. In this extremity he displayed great courage and constancy, and addressing the multitude, reminded them of his sacred character, and tried to rouse them to some sense of [JUNE 14, 1381.] justice and humanity.* All these appeals were ineffectual; after many blows his head was struck off, and his dead body was treated with barbarous indignity. But it was believed that miracles were worked to punish his murderers, and to show that he had been received in heaven as a Saint. It is gravely related, that the executioner who had committed the horrid sacrilege went mad, and was struck with blindness; that a man, blind for many years, on praying to be cured for his sake, was immediately restored to sight; and (as we may well believe) that a woman who had been long in difficult labour, having prayed for his intercession, was the same day delivered of three fine boys,-all received into the church by baptism. The same historian, who was his contemporary, and speaks from personal knowledge, gives him the character of being "very eloquent, and incomparably wise above all the great men of the kingdom." The rebellion having been quelled by the gallantry of Sir William Walworth and the presence of mind and address of the youthful King, which raised a disappointed expectation of [A. D. 1381.] his qualifications for government, the Great Seal was given into the temporary custody, first, of Richard Earl of Arundel, and then of Hugh de Segrave "till the King could conveniently provide a Chancellor."+ On the 10th of August, Segrave restored the Seal to the King, who immediately delivered it with the title of Chancellor to WILLIAM COURTENAY, Bishop of London.‡ The office of Chancellor appears, in this age, to have been an object of ambition to men of the most illustrious descent. Wil. liam was the son of Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon, [A. D. 1381.] having in his veins the blood of French Kings and of Emperors of the East. While yet a youth, he had made great proficiency in the civil and canon law, and taking orders, he rose rapidly in the church from personal merit and family interest. * "Quid est charissimi filii, quid est quod proponitis facere? Quod est peccatum meum quod in vos commisi, propter quod me vultis occidere? Cavendum est ne me interfecto, qui pastor, prælatus et archiepiscopus vester sum, veniat super vos indignatio justi vindicis, vel certe pro tali facto, tota supponatur Anglia interdicto." -Wals. 262. +"Mulier quædam quæ impregnata fuerat et parere nullo modo poterat, postulato ejus auxilio, eodem die deliberata est de tribus puerulis, qui omnes baptizati sunt.”p. 263. Rot. Cl. 5 Ric. 2, m. 25. After holding almost innumerable prebends and livings, he was made Bishop of Hereford, and then translated to London. He was very popular with the Londoners, who stood by him in a dispute with John of Gaunt, and could hardly be restrained by him from pulling down the Duke's house. He was made a Cardinal, and he succeeded De Sudbury as Archbishop of Canterbury as well as Lord Chancellor. He sat in Chancery himself, without the assistance of the Master of the Rolls, or any other Keeper; but he appears to have excited great dissatisfaction as a judge, and the cry against delays and corruption in his court soon became very loud and general. A parliament met in September, and it was opened by the Chancellor in a speech from this text, "Rex convenire fecit concilium." "* He declared the chief cause of the summons to be to punish the [A. D. 1381.] authors of the late horrible tumults, and to do away with the charters of liberty and manumission which the King had been forced to grant to bond-tenants and villains under the Great Seal of England.† But the parliament immediately proceeded to inquire into the abuses in the government of the country, and the Commons petitioned for the appointment of a new Chancellor and other judges. In consequence of these proceedings, Archbishop Courtenay was removed from the office of Chancellor, and Lord Le Scrope, who had been leader of the opposition, was placed in it the second time. The Ex-chancellor devoted the rest of his days to his ecclesiastical duties. He held a celebrated synod at London, in which the doctrines of Wickliffe were so [A. D. 1381.] lemnly condemned. A little before his death he obtained a grant by a papal bull of the sixtieth part of the income of all the clergy within his province; but the Bishop of Lincoln refusing to pay, and appealing to the Pope, the Archbishop died while the matter was depending, July 31, 1396. During this last transfer of the Great Seal the King had it a short time in his own possession, and himself sealed a commission by which he appointed John de Holland, his brother by the mother's side, John de Montague, Steward of his household, and Simon de Burle, his Chamberlain, to proceed to Germany, there to receive the Lady Ann, the sister of the Emperor, as his future Queen, and to conduct her to his presence. This might be excusable, as matter personally relating to himself, but he at the same time sealed several other commissions and important charters with his own hand, which gave him a taste for acting without any responsible adviser, and contrary to the opinion expressed by his ministers. * In the Parliament Roll the Chancellor is said to have made un bonne collacion en Engleys.-Rot. Parl. 5 Ric. 2. Although the formal written proceedings in par. liament were, and are still, in French, I conceive that from the time when representatives from cities and boroughs were admitted, a liberty must have been allowed to speak in English, and the use of the French in debate must have been gradually laid aside. It appears by the Close Roll that the Great Seal had been a short time in the King's own keeping, and I presume these charters were then sealed with his own hand. The Commons now made another effort to abolish all fines on writs out of Chancery, as contrary to the Great Charter; but the King answered, "that such fines had always been received in Chancery as well since as before the Great Charter, by all his noble progenitors, Kings of England."* As soon as parliament was dissolved, the King quarrelled with Lord le Scrope, the new Chancellor, who resisted the gross job of conferring upon some worthless favourites the lands which, on the death of the Earl of March, had fallen to the Crown. Richard became incensed at his behaviour, and at the instigation of the disappointed parties, sent messenger after messenger to demand the Great Seal from him; but he refused to deliver it except to the King himself. At length the King got possession of it on the 11th of July, and gave it into the keeping of Hugh de Segrave and others, to be used by [4. D. 1382.] them for the sealing of writs and charters till a new Chancellor should be found.t On the 20th of September, ROBERT de Braybroke was made Chancellor. He was of a noble family, the Braybrokes, of, Braybroke Castle, in the county of Northampton. Having [A. D. 1382.] studied at Cambridge, and becoming a licentiate in laws, he entered the church, was made canon of Lichfield, and, in 1381, was consecrated Bishop of London. At this time he was high in favour with John of Gaunt, who was the means of his being made Chancellor from the capacity for political intrigue which he was supposed to have displayed. He was not created in the usual manner by the King delivering the Seal to him, but by writ, addressed to those who had it in their keeping.‡ During his short tenure of office, two parliaments were called and opened by speeches from the Chancellor; but they were chiefly occupied with measures to put down the heresy of Wickliffe, and no civil business of any importance was transacted at them.§ Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the favourite of Richard II., being raised to the title of Duke of Ireland, was now engrossing all power into his own hands, and he resolved to intrust the Great Seal to a layman who, if from his education unfit for its judicial duties, was eminent for talents, address, and suppleness-qualities sometimes as much considered in filling up the office of Chancellor. On the 13th of March, 1383, the Great Seal was taken from Robert de Braybroke, and given to MICHAEL DE LA POLE. The Close Roll says, that the Bishop earnestly desired to be re Rot. Par. 5 Ric. 2. "De par le Roy." [A. D. 1383.] + Rot. Cl. 6 Ric. 2, m. 24. "Treschers et foialx, nous avons ordinez et volons que le Reverent Pere en Dieu, et notre trescher Cosin, levesque de Londres, serra notre Chanceller Denglitere, pur le grand affiance que nous avons en luy. Si vous mandons et chargeons que veues cestes, vouz facez delivrer a luy notre Grand Seal esteant ore en votre garde, over le trouble de son cherge et toutes autres a ly appurtienantz come a notre Chanceller. Et cette lettre vous ent serra garrant. Donnez, &c."-Rot. Cl. 6 R. 2. § 1 Parl. Hist. 176. |