66 of the common law were disregarded, they presented petitions to parliament, and themselves endorsed 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 cognisable 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,' 990 -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 unauthorised 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 Gloucester, who made themselves liable if the King should die; but this was quite insufficient for the present exigency, and there was no hope except in the Lord Chancellor. He had amassed immense riches from the profits of his see and of his office; but he refused to make any gift, and even to lend on the security with which others had been satisfied. At last the King offered to pawn to him the Crown itself. Thereupon, Rol. Par. 4 Hen. 5. taking the pledge into his custody, the Chancellor advanced a very large loan, and the war was vigorously prosecuted. A.D. 1417. At the last parliament over which Cardinal Beaufort presided during the present reign, an act was passed with his concurrence, and probably with the great applause of the English nation,-who for many centuries hated, and despised, and oppressed their Irish fellow subjects, "That none of the Irish nation should be elected an Archbishop, Bishop, Abbot, or Prior; and that whoever promoted such to those ecclesiastical preferments, or brought any such Irish rebels to parliaments, councils, or other assemblies among the English, should have all their temporal estates seized into the King's hands till they have paid the fines due for such offences." On the last day of the session, the King, sitting on his throne in full parliament, created Thomas Beaufort, who was Earl of Dorset and Ex-Chancellor, Duke of Exeter, with a pension of 1000l. a year. The Lords, with a proper respect for Ex-Chancellors, so much approved of the King's liberality, that they said no objection could be made, but only that it was too little, and not proportionable to the merits and services of that noble person.P Cardinal Beaufort, in this Chancellorship, never parted with the custody of the Great Seal, except from the 5th of September to the 12th of October, 1416, during which time he was absent with the King in France, and the Great Seal was intrusted by him to the keeping of Simon Gaunstede, Master of the Rolls, to be re-delivered to him on his return.a We have slender means of knowing how he performed his judicial duties; but we may, from his general disposition, not uncharitably believe that he was assiduous in business, and enoouraged suitors that he might multiply fees. He resembled the fallen angel, whose "looks and thoughts Were always downward bent, admiring more His avarice, however, was now to receive a heavy and unexpected blow. From the hard bargain he made when he advanced money for the public service, or his importunity to be repaid, he disgusted the King. The Close Roll, 5 Hen. V., records that, "On the 23rd of July, 1417, Henry Beaufort, P Parl. Rol. 4 & 5 Hen. 5. 1 Parl. Hist. 335. 9 Rot. Cl. 4 Hen. 5, m. 13. Bishop of Winchester, delivered up the Great Seal of gold to the King, on which day it was given to Thomas Longley, Bishop of Durham, who became Chancellor the second time, but no writer gives us the particulars of the intrigue which brought about this change. The Ex-Chancellor now visited the Council of Basil, and contrived to get himself named by Pope Martin V. Cardinal and Apostolic Legate in England and Ireland; but, upon the remonstrance of Archbishop Chicheley, the King forbade him to accept these dignities, and he was not gratified with wearing the red hat till after he had finally resigned the Great Seal in the succeeding reign. A parliament was soon after called, which was opened by the new Chancellor with a speech from the text Comfortamini et viriliter agite et gloriosi eritis. The most remarkable transaction during this parliament, throwing particular discredit on the Chancellor, was the order by the Lords that Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, should be burnt under the sentence passed against him as a heretic. He was the first English peer who ever suffered death for religion.* About the same time the Ex-Chancellor Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, managed to get a private bill of his smuggled through both Houses, that a security given to him for a loan on the customs of Southampton, should be confirmed by parlia ment." A.D. 1421. Nothing memorable connected with the office of Chancellor occurred till 1421, when Henry's victories having led to the treaty of Troyes, by which he was to marry the Princess Catherine, and was declared regent of France and heir to that kingdom, he called a parliament to ratify the treaty.* This parliament was opened by a speech from the King's own mouth, the first instance I have found of the Sovereign himself declaring the causes of summoning his great council. Henry represented to them the state of affairs,- "what conquests he had made in France, and what supplies were necessary to continue the war;-assuring them that the Dauphin and his party, who maintained some cities and provinces, being subdued, that kingdom might be entirely united to the English crown.' The Lord Chancellor, by order of the King, read the articles of the treaty of Troyes, which had been sworn to by the two Kings of England and France, and ratified also by the Rot. Cl. 5 Hen. 5, m. 15. 8 1 Parl. Hist. 335. t Ibid. 337. u Ibid. * Ibid. 339. three estates of France; whereupon both Houses of Parliament avowed that they approved and accepted it as most conducive to the good of both nations, and of all Christendom; and every one promised for himself, his heirs, and successors, that they would inviolably observe it. It is marvellous that such men as Longley and the spiritual Peers, whose blood was not heated by being personally engaged in the conflict, should have sanctioned a treaty which nothing but the power of the sword could carry into execution, and which, if it had taken effect, must have proved equally pernicious to England and to France. At this parliament the Commons made another unsuccessful attempt to put an entire stop to the writ of subpoena in Chancery, as well as to Privy Seals bringing matters of private right before the Council; but they had a limited and temporary triumph by carrying an act to endure until the next parliament, "that the exception how that the partie hath sufficient remedy at the common law, shall discharge any matter in Chancery.' The act was never renewed, so that the concurrent jurisdiction of the Courts of equity and Courts of common law in partition, dower, account, and many such matters, has continued. Henry, leaving the government in the hands of his brother, the Duke of Bedford, and of the Chancellor, re- Aug. 31, turned to France, espoused Catherine, got pos- 1422. session of Paris, had his infant son proclaimed heir of both kingdoms, and died at Vincennes in the thirty-fourth year of his age. Dec. 1, 1421. His last parliament had been held in his absence, the Chancellor opening the session with a formal speech. After voting a supply, the chief business was regulating the coinage, which had fallen into great disorder from the short-sighted fraud of adulteration, first begun in the reign of Edward III.;-and it was enacted, "that the Chancellor of England should deliver to those who would have them good and just weights of the noble, half noble, and farthing of gold, to prevent the people being abused by such as were counterfeit.' " a During this reign the equity jurisdiction of the Chancellor was so actively enforced, that some have ascribed its origin to the Chancellorship of Cardinal Beaufort. He first exercised a control over the marriage of infants, and along with uses and trusts he took cognisance of many miscellaneous matters, which y 1 Parl. Hist. 339. z Rol. Parl. 9 Hen. 5. a 1 Parl. Hist. 340. would now be referred to courts of common law, either civil or criminal.b It may be remarked, that at this period of our history there was an unusual ferment in men's minds, and the Commons showed a strong spirit of innovation both in church and state, so that there seemed a great probability that important changes would be introduced with respect to the maintenance of the clergy and the administration of justice; but the absorbing foreign war in which the country was engaged preserved all our institutions untouched by legislation during the whole reign of Henry V. CHAPTER XX. CHANCELLORS FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VI. TILL THE DEATH OF CARDINAL BEAUFORT. HENRY VI. was, at his father's death, an infant of nine months Sept. 1, old. The Duke of Gloucester, his uncle, having 1422. been named Regent of England by the late King, was at first allowed to assume the government under that title. At the end of a month a council was held at Windsor, at which the baby monarch in his nurse's arms was present, and was supposed to preside. Longley, Lord Chancellor to the late King, put the Great Seal into the royal lap, and placed upon it the hands of the child, who was too young even to be amused with it as a toy. The Regent then, in the King's name, delivered it to Simon Gaunstede, the Master of the Rolls, for the despatch of necessary business. But the Regent soon found that he could not exercise his authority without the sanction of the legislature, and a commission passed the Great Seal for a new parliament to be held before him. The session was opened, by his command, with a speech from Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury. Business being begun, it is stated in the Parliamentary History, that the two bishops of Durham and London, the former having been b See 2 Cooper on Records, 361. "Præfatus Dominus Rex nunc sigillum ud per manns præfati Ducis prædicto Simoni liberavit custodiendum," &c. Rot. Cl. 1 Hen. 6, m. 15.-This was the precedent chiefly relied upon for the fictitious use of the Great Seal during the insanity of George III |