IX. Disruption of Aula Regia. CHAP. Charta, the Aula Regia was gradually subdivided, and certain Judges were assigned to hear criminal cases before the King himself, wheresoever he might be, in England. These formed the Court of King's Bench. They were called "Justitiarii ad placita coram Rege," and the one who was to preside "Capitalis Justiciarius." He was inferior in rank to the Chancellor, and had a salary of only 100 marks a year*, while the Chancellor had generally 500. Henceforth the Chancellor Chancellor, in rank, power, and emolument, was the first magistrate under the Crown, and looked up to as the great head of the profession of the law. now head of law. There are some cases decided in this reign which are still quoted as authority in Legal Digests; -the writs and summonses to Simon de Montfort's parliament are now given in evidence on questions of peerage, and the England in which we live might be descried. Dugd. Or. Jur. p. 104. The puisnes had only forty pounds a year. The chief justice of Common Pleas had one hundred marks, the chief baron forty marks, and the puisne barons twenty. 2 Reeve's Hist. of Law, 91. This is certainly poor pay, and I am afraid may have induced the judges to be guilty of the corrupt conduct for which they were punished in the following reign. The work was however very light till the times when salaries were so much increased. In the reign of Henry VI. the judges never sat more than three hours a day, from eight in the morning till eleven, employing the rest of their time in refection, reading, and contemplation, while the councillors and serjeants went to the parvise at Paul's to meet their clients. Fort. de Laud. CHAPTER X. CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS OF THE GREAT SEAL DURING THE CHAP. EDWARD being proclaimed King, while still absent from England, the Council, as an act of power authorised by the urgency of the case, resolved to appoint a Chancellor. After Nov. 20. nine days' deliberation they selected WALTER DE MERTON, 1272. who had filled the office in the preceding reign, and who, MARTON having always been a zealous royalist, they had every reason Chancellor. to believe would be agreeable to the new Sovereign. The letters addressed to the Prince requiring his presence had produced the desired effect, and he had reached Sicily on his return from the Holy Land, when he received intelligence of the death of his father. Learning the quiet settlement of the kingdom, he was in no hurry to take possession of the throne; but from France he wrote a letter dated the 9th of August, in the first year of his reign-"To his beloved Clerk and Chancellor, Walter de Merton," confirming his appointment, and requesting him to continue to discharge the duties of the Chancellorship. * "EDWARD, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine, to his beloved clerk and Chancellor, Walter de Merton, greeting. "We give you special thanks for the diligence you have applied to our affairs and those of our kingdom, beseeching that what you have so laudably begun you will happily take care to continue, causing justice to be done to every one in matters which belong to your office, inducing others also to do the same, not sparing the condition or rank of any person, so that the rigour of justice may control those whom the sense of equity cannot restrain from injuries. Those things which you shall have rightly done in this matter we, God willing, will cause to be fully confirmed. "Given at Mellune on Seine, 9th of August, in the first year of our reign." This letter shows that the king clearly conceived he had a right to remove the Chancellor if he had thought fit, though he had been appointed by the council. This appointment is adduced by Prynne in his "Opening of the Great Seal," as a proof that the Chancellor was the officer of the parliament, not of the king; but the appointment of de Merton was an act of power exercised in the king's name, and demanded by necessity, as at the decease of Henry III. there was no WALTER DE CHAP. The nobles assembled at the "New Temple" in London* had ordered a new Great Seal to be made, having the name and style of Edward inscribed upon it, and in the attestation of public documents by the guardians of the realm during the King's absence the words occur,-"In cujus, &c., has literas sigillo Domini Regis quo utimur in agendis, eodem absente, fecimus consignari."-De Merton displayed extracharacter. ordinary ability as Chancellor, and materially contributed to the auspicious commencement of the new reign. His con duct and A. D. 1274. Sept. 21. Chancellor. To the great joy of the people the King at last arrived, was crowned, and took the Government into his own hands. He ordered another Great Seal, under which he confirmed the grants made in his absence, by "inspeximus" - according to the following form: "Is erat tenor prædictarum literarum quas prædicto sigillo nostro fecimus quo prædicti locum nostrum tenentes utebantur, quod quia postmodum mutatum est, tenorem literarum prædictarum acceptantes præsenti sigillo nostro fecimus consignari.”† - De Merton was now removed from the office, not because his conduct was at all censured, but the King wished to promote to it a personal friend who had followed him in all his fortunes, and for whose abilities and character he had the highest respect. The Bishopric of Rochester was bestowed on the Ex-chancellor, and he employed his time in building, endowing, and making statutes for Merton College, Oxford, where his memory is still revered. He died in 1277.‡ On the day of St. Matthew the Apostle §, 1274, the office of Chancellor was conferred on ROBERT BURNEL, and he continued to hold it with great applause for eighteen years, Chancellor, and the Seal was deposited in the wardrobe. Unless some one had been appointed Chancellor, writs could not have been sealed, and the government of the country could not have been conducted till the king should return or manifest his pleasure upon the subject. *Mat. West. 401. Pat. Rot. 1 Ed. 1. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, his tomb being much dilapidated, it was repaired by the Warden and Scholars of Merton, who supplied an epitaph giving a minute account of the life and dignities of their Founder, and concluding with these lines: § Sept. 21. "Magne senex titulis Musarum sede sacrata, during all which time he enjoyed the favour and confidence of Edward, and was his chief adviser in all his measures. He is a striking example of the unequal measure with which historical fame has been meted out to English statesmen. Although intimately connected with the conquest and settlement of Wales;—although he conducted Edward's claim to the superiority over Scotland, and pronounced the sentence by which the crown of that country was disposed of to be held under an English liege Lord; - although he devised a system for the government of Ireland upon liberal and enlightened principles;—although he took the chief part in the greatest reforms of the law of England recorded in her annals, — and there can be no doubt that he occupied a considerable space in the public eye during his own age, - his name has since been known only to a few dry antiquaries incapable of appreciating his merits. * СНАР. X. education. Robert Burnel was the younger son of Robert de Burnel, Birth and of a powerful family settled from time immemorial at Acton Burnel, in the county of Salop. Here the future Chancellor was born†; here he afterwards, by the King's licence, erected a fortified castle; and here, to illustrate his native place, he prevailed on the King to hold a parliament at which was passed the famous law, "DE MERCATORIBUS," called "the statute of Acton Burnel." panies Prince Ed ward to the Holy Land. As his elder brother, Hugh, was to inherit the paternal Accomestate, and was, of course, to do military service as a knight and baron, Robert was destined to rise in the state by civil and ecclesiastical employments, which were then generally combined. He early distinguished himself by his proficiency not only in the civil and canon law, but in the common law of England; and there is reason to think that after he had taken holy orders, he practised as an advocate in the Courts at Westminster. During the Barons' wars, while still a young man, he was introduced to Prince Edward, who was about his own age, and was much pleased with his address and social qualities, as well as his learning and ability. He * In Hume's very superficial history of the reign of Edward I., Lord Chancellor Burnel is not once named or alluded to. † Rot. Pat. 12 Ed. 1. m. 7. m. 18. CHAP. May, 1275. Law reform. STATUTE OF STER THE FIRST. Provisions of the Code. became chaplain and private secretary to the heir apparent, suggested to him the counsels which enabled him to triumph over Simon de Montfort, and attended him in his expedition to the Holy Land. * When appointed Chancellor he had reached no higher ecclesiastical dignity than that of Archdeacon of York. He was soon after raised to the see of Bath and Wells, with which he remained contented, devoting the whole of his energies to affairs of state. He presided at the Parliament which met in May 1275, and passed "the STATUTE OF WESTMINSTER THE FIRST,' deserving the name of a CODE rather than an Act of Parliament. From this chiefly, Edward I. has obtained the name of "the English Justinian"-absurdly enough, as the Roman Emperor merely caused a compilation to be made of existing laws, whereas the object now was to correct abuses, to supply defects, and to remodel the administration of justice. Edward deserves infinite praise for the sanction he gave to the undertaking; and from the observations he had made in France, Sicily, and the East, he may, like Napoleon, have been personally useful in the consultations for the formation of the new Code, but the execution of the plan must have been left to others professionally skilled in jurisprudence, and the chief merit of it may safely be ascribed to Lord Chancellor Burnel, who brought it forward in parliament. The statute is methodically divided into fifty-one chapters. Without extending the exemption of churchmen from civil jurisdiction, it protects the property of the Church from the violence and spoliation of the King and the nobles, to which it had been exposed. It provides for freedom of popular elections then a matter of much moment, as sheriffs, coroners, and conservators of the peace were still chosen by the freeholders in the county court, and attempts had been made unduly to influence the election of knights of the shire, almost from the time when the order was instituted. It contains a strong declaration to enforce the enactment of *Rot. Claus. 2 Ed. 1. m. 4. Rot. Pat. 50 Hen. 3. m. |