CHAPTER XIX. CHANCELLLORS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY V. We now come to a reign for military exploits, one of the most brilliant in our annals, but by no means distinguished for juridical improvement, although during the course [MARCH 21, 1413.] of it the office of Chancellor was filled by very eminent men. Henry V. being proclaimed King, to the great joy of the people, the first act of his reign was to take the Great Seal from Archbishop Arundel, and deliver it to his uncle Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, the Cardinal, who now entered on his second Chancellorship. The young King was not actuated by any desire to change his father's ministers. Contrary to the expectations of his dissolute companions, and of the nation generally, his plan was to continue in their offices all who had faithfully served the Crown.* Perhaps he was induced to make an exception in the case of the Archbishop, on account of the active part which this Prelate had taken in the dethronement of Richard II. Henry expressed the deepest sorrow for the fate of that unhappy Prince, did justice to his good qualities, performed his funeral obsequies with pomp and solemnity, and cherished all those who had distinguished themselves by their loyalty and attachment to him. The Archbishop, while in exile, and on his return to England, had devised and prosecuted the plans which led Richard to his grave, and he might now be an object of personal dislike to the new King, who did not go so far as to resign his Crown to the true heir, but affected much to favour the doctrine of legitimacy. We must now take final leave of Ex-chancellor Arundel. Relieved from official duties, he occupied himself in carrying on a violent prosecution against the Lollards, whom the King was rather disposed to screen, and he presided on the trial and condemnation of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, their leader, who had incurred the peculiar hatred of the clergy, by actively supporting the proposal to encroach on the revenues of the church. This intriguing Prelate and Chancellor does not fill so great a space in the eye of history as might have been expected, from the important part he acted in the revolutions of his age; but such was his reputation for ability with his contemporaries, that when impeached for high treason in 1397, the Commons having finished their case, as he began to answer for himself, Sir John Busby, the Speaker, entreated the King that this might not be allowed him, "lest *We might have expected to see the Great Seal now delivered to Sir John Falstaff, that he might play the part of "Chancellor," as he had done that of "King;" but instead of this, the stern order was given : "Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet: he might, by his subtlety and great wit, bring persons over to believe him innocent,"'-so that he was forced to remain silent.* Of his judicial character no author makes mention. He died in January, 1314. Cardinal Beaufort, two days after his appointment, sealed writs for a new parliament to meet at Easter; and when the time [MAR. 23, 1413.] came, opened the session with a speech from the text, "Ante omne actum consilium stabilire." The Commons made an attempt to reform the Ecclesiastical Courts and other abuses, but exhausted themselves in attacks on the Lollards. These were renewed in a parliament which met the following year, when laws [A. D. 1414.] were passed, at the suggestion of the Chancellor and other Prelates, against reading Wickliffe's translation of the Bible, and against other such enormities. But the church was alarmed by the Commons again urgently pressing that the revenues of the clergy should be applied to the purposes of the State, and passing a bill which, says Hall," made the fat abbots to sweat, the proud priors to frown, the poor monks to curse, the silly nuns to weep, and indeed all to fear that Babel would fall down." It is said by some historians, that it was to divert this storm from the church, that Chicheley, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, strongly advised the King to claim the crown of France, and to lead an army across the seas in support of his pretended right. Certainly there is extant a long and very extraordinary speech of his, addressed to the King in the House of Lords, making out the title of Edward III., notwithstanding the Salic law, and insisting that whatever title that Sovereign had was now vested in his present Majesty. He thus concluded, "Consider the just title you have to this Crown, devolved on you by Queen Isabella your great-grandmother, sister and heir to three successive kings of France, who died without children, and take up noble arms to assist so just a cause. Advance your standard into France, and with assured hopes of victory march to conquer those dominions which are your own by inheritance. There is no true Englishman but is ready to devote his life and fortune to so glorious a service of his King. And in full persuasion of the justness of the war, we the clergy have given such a sum of money to maintain it as was never granted to any of your predecessors, and will join all our prayers for the success of your arms." His Grace found it convenient to forget not only the objections to the claim of Edward III., but the awkward fact, that, supposing this monarch to have been entitled to the crown of France,— if the succession to it was not regulated by the Salic law, the true heir was the Earl of March, descended from his second son the Duke of Clarence, and not Henry V. descended from his third son, the Duke of Lancaster; and if the parliament of England could change the descent of the English crown, transferring it to a younger branch of the royal family, it could have no such power over the crown of another country, t1 Parl. Hist. 319. 1 St. Tr. 226. which could not be considered, like the Isle of Man, as appurtenant to the crown of England.* But he was warmly supported by the Exchancellor Thomas Beaufort, then Earl of Dorset, afterwards Duke of Exeter, and his arguments prevailed with the King and the royal brothers, who, being young and thirsting for glory, were impatient to signalize their courage against the old enemies of their native land. The same gallant spirit diffusing itself through the minds of the other nobles, they all declared for a war with France. The Ecclesiastical Revenues Bill was allowed to drop, and as soon as a supply was voted, the parliament was prorogued. The successive ecclesiastical Chancellors who presided in the House of Lords from this time till the quarrel with Rome in the reign of Henry VIII., contrived to prevent the subject being again brought forward in parliament. But the Clamours against the abuses of the Court of Chancery could not be silenced. Cardinal Beaufort was now extending its jurisdiction in a manner that greatly alarmed the common lawyers, and caused the most lively remonstrances from the House of Commons. As soon as the King returned to England, after his glorious cam- [A. D. 1415.] paign, commenced by the capture of Harfleur, and crowned by the battle of Agincourt,-a parliament was called, and the Chancellor, in his speech with which the session was opened, tried to divert attention from all domestic grievances, by a glowing description of the martial glory the nation had won. He strongly urged them to be content with nothing less than the conquest of France, endeavouring to demonstrate that a thing well begun, and continued with diligence, must have a prosperous event, according to the saying, Dimidium facti qui bene capit habet."† There were, of course, warm congratulations on account of the splendid success of the royal arms; but the first real business was a petition from the Commons to the King (the usual mode of legislating in that age) against the recent encroachment of Courts of Equity,— praying that no causes should be drawn thither which might be determined in the Courts of common law. The petition is curious, as containing a full exposition of the opinion of the great body of the nation upon the subject of equitable jurisdiction.‡ * After the revolution of 1688, William III. and our constitutional kings of the House of Hanover called themselves kings of France, and bore the lilies in their shield till the year 1806; but to make out their title would have required the eloquence of the Archbishop. † 1 Parl. Hist. 331. Also the Commons pray, that inasmuch as many persons of your kingdom feel themselves greatly aggrieved in this, that your writs, called writs of subpoena and certiorari, are made and sued out of your Chancery and Exchequer for matters determinable by your common law, which never were granted or used before the time of the late King Richard; when John Waltham, heretofore Bishop of Salisbury, of his craft, invented, made, and commenced such innovations against the form of the common law of your realm, as well as to the great loss and hinderance of the profits which ought to arise to you, Sovereign Lord, in your courts, as in the fees and profits of your seals, fines, issues, and amerciaments,-and divers other profits, coming to your other Courts, in causes in which the matters might be sued and determined by The royal veto was put upon the measure, the response being, “Le Roy s'avisera.”* The chief grievance now complained of was afterwards remedied in practice, by the plaintiff being obliged to put upon the file of the Court a bill specifying his cause of suit before the subpœna issued. the common law, because no profit arises to you from such writs, except only 6d. for the seal: And whereas, by reason that your Justices of either Bench, when they ought to attend in their places, to enter pleas and to take inquests for the deliverance of your people, are occupied upon examinations upon such writs, to the great vexation, loss, and costs of your liege subjects, who are long time delayed in the sealing of their writs, sued in your Chancery, by reason of the great occupation upon the said examinations, which things are not profitable to you most Sovereign Lord, nor to your liege subjects, on which examinations there is great clamour and noise by divers persons not aware of the law, without any record thereupon entered in your said places: And in which pleas they cannot make fine but by examination and oath of the parties, according to the form of the civil law, and the law of Holy Church, in subversion of your common law: And in causes which the said parties cannot be convicted by their examination there, they are sent to find sureties for your peace, which they are not able to find in their counties without coming to your courts; or otherwise they are encouraged to treat and agree with their adversaries who sue such writs, or otherwise to abide elsewhere, in word or on bail, until they shall so do: That it please our most Sovereign Lord to ordain, in this present par. liament, that every person who shall sue such writs shall put all the cause and matter of his suit in the said writs, and that all such writs, in the Courts out of which they shall issue, shall be enrolled in the said Courts, and made patent, and shall remain for the defendants therein, without being returned in the said Courts. And in cases in which any one shall feel himself aggrieved or vexed by such manner of writs, for any matter determinable by the common law, then the person so aggrieved or vexed shall have an action of debt for 401. against him, wherefore he sued the said writs, upon which writ the cause of the action by how much he was vexed by such writ, of the matter which was determinable by the common law. And in cases which appear to the Court in such writ for which the debt is sued and the matter contained in such writ was determinable by the common law, which they maintained in pursuance of such writ, shall be condemned towards such person, being so vexed, in the said sum of 401. And moreover to ordain by authority of the said parliament, that in writs called informations, which are issued out of your Exchequer, the names of those on whose suggestion or information such writs issued shall be sent in the said writs. And that all such writs so issuing at your suit, or at the suit of the party, shall be enrolled and made patent, and shall remain for the defendant therein, with. out being returned into your Exchequer, and in like manner to declare concerning writs called subpoena and certiorari. And in cases which after those who are made to come into your Exchequer, by force of such writs, may be sufficiently excused, acquitted, or discharged, of the suggestions and matters on them so surmised, upon such writs, then they shall have an action of debt for 401. against the said suggestors and informers, declaring against them upon the said writs the cause of their action, by so much as the said suggestions or informations are of record not proved true. And if it may appear by the record to the Court, on such writs, they shall be sued for the debt which the plaintiffs in the said writs were acquitted, excused, or discharged, of the matters and suggestions having been by them surmised, that then the said informers and suggestors shall be condemned to the prosecutor of the said writs of debt, in the said sum of 401. And furthermore that as well the pain con. tained in such writs, as all the process thereupon, shall be void and holden for nothing. And if any such writs, called subpoena and certiorari, and informations, shall be sued out of your said Courts, against this ordinance, in time to come, that the said writs, and all the proceedings depending thereupon, shall be wholly void and holden for nothing."" *Rot. Parl. 3 Hen. 5. Rot. Par 3 Hen. 5, part ii. vol. iv. P. 84. In the following year, the Commons renewed the complaint against arbitrary proceedings contrary to the course of the com mon law, although the Chancellor had tried to tranquillize [A.D. 1416.] them by an opening speech from the text, "Operam detis ut quieti sitis." There had, as we have seen, been an early practice of presenting petitions to parliament complaining of private grievances. After the separation of the two Houses, these were reserved for the consideration of the Lords, and were first submitted to the triers of petitions, who were appointed at the commencement of every session. Such of them as disclosed matters only fit for the ordinary tribunals of the country, were in regular manner referred to those tribunals, and some were not improperly allotted to the Chancellor, or the Privy Council. But this course was resorted to chiefly by suitors who knew they had no chance of success in the Courts of common law;-and, as an expedient for securing themselves a hearing before those by whom the rules of the common law were disregarded, they presented petitions to parliament, and themselves indorsed upon them a supposed reference to the Council or the Chancellor,-which was considered as giving the Council or Chancellor jurisdiction, although the subject matter was properly cognizable at common law. The House of Commons now prayed the King "that if any man shall indorse his bill or petition with these words by authority of parliament, let this bill or petition be sent to the Council of the King, or to the Chancellor of England, to execute and determine what is contained therein, by which the said bill or petition be not by the Commons of the parliament inquired into, affirmed, or assented unto, (which no one can indorse on any such bill or petition, without the assent and request of the Commons of parliament,) let him be sent to answer for disobeying the laws of the kingdom of England." The King's answer still was, "Le Roy s'avisera,"* which I can only account for from the parenthetical claim of privilege set up by the Commons, that they were to join in hearing and disposing of petitions to parliament respecting the administration of justice, and that, without their concurrence, the Lords could neither themselves determine the matter nor refer it to another tribunal. The simple condemnation and prohibition of the unauthorized practice of individuals so indorsing their petitions without the sanction of either House, could not have been refused; but a great jealousy has always been manifested of an encroachment by the Commons on the judicial powers of the Upper House. The Chancellor had now a very delicate matter to negotiate; and he had to encounter a very formidable struggle between his avarice and his love of power. The King was reduced to the greatest necessity for money to carry on the war with France. Tenths and fifteenths were voted to him, but a long time was required to collect them; and cash to pay the mutinous troops was indispensable. A sum was raised upon the personal responsibility of the Dukes of Clarence, Bedford, and +1 Parl. Hist. 333. *Rol. Par. 4 Hen. 5. |