and the most important branch of the equitable jurisdiction of the Court over trusts was firmly and irrevocably established.

A written statement of the supposed grievance being required to be filed before the issuing of the subpana, with security to pay damages and costs,-bills now acquired form, and the distinction arose between the proceeding by bill and by petition. The same regularity was observed in the subsequent stages of the suit. Whereas formerly the defendant was generally examined viva voce when he appeared in obedience to the subpoena, the practice now was to put in a written answer, commencing with a protestation against the truth or sufficiency of the matters contained in the bill, stating the facts relied upon by the defendant, and concluding with a prayer that he may be dismissed with his costs.

answer.

There were likewise, for the purpose of introducing new facts, special replications and rejoinders, which continued till the reign of Elizabeth, but which have been rendered unnecessary by the more modern practice of amending the bill and Pleas and demurrers now appear. Although the pleadings were in English, the decrees on the bill continued to be in Latin down to the reign of Henry VIII.' Bills to perpetuate testimony, to set out metes and bounds, and for injunctions against proceedings at law, and to stay waste, be came frequent."

b

The common-law Judges at this time were very bold men, having of their own authority repealed the statute DE DONIS, passed in the reign of Edward I., which authorised the perpetual entail of land,-by deciding in Taltarum's case, that the entail might be barred through a fictitious proceeding in the Court of Common Pleas, called a "Common Recovery;" -the estate being adjudged to a sham claimant,—a sham equivalent being given to those who ought to succeed to it,— and the tenant in tail being enabled to dispose of it as he pleased, in spite of the will of the donor. One of these judges was Littleton, the author of the Treatise on Tenures, a work of higher authority than any other in the law of England. Fortescue is the only individual in the list of Chancellors who wrote in this reign, and his Dialogue "De Laudibus was not published till long after. In the old "Abridgments of the Law there are various

z They were now sometimes expressed to be "habita deliberatione cum justiciariis et aliis de dicti Domini Regis concilio peritis ad

hoc evocatis et ibidem tunc præsentibus."

a See Calendar, and Reports of Record Commissioners, temp. Ed. 4. b 12 Ed. 4.

decisions of Edward IV.'s Chancellors referred to under the heads "Conscience," "Subpoena," and "Injunctions," the only prior ones being a few in the time of Henry VI; but they show equity to have been still in the rudest state, without systematic rules or principles.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHANCELLORS DURING THE REIGNS OF EDWARD V. AND RICHARD III.

1483.

BEFORE Edward IV. was laid in his grave, disputes began between the Queen's family and the Duke of Glouces- April 9, ter, her brother-in-law, who from the first claimed the office of Protector, and soon resolved at all hazards to seize the crown. Lord Chancellor Rotheram sided with the Queen, and when with her daughters and her younger son she had taken sanctuary within the precincts of the Abbey at Westminster, where on a former distress during the short restoration of Henry VI. she had been delivered of the Prince of Wales, he interfered in his sacred character of Archbishop to prevent her and the objects of her affection from being forcibly laid hold of by Richard, who contended that the ecclesiastical privilege of sanctuary did not apply to them, as it was originally intended only to give protection to unhappy men persecuted for their debts or crimes. A messenger came from Richard to Rotheram, to assure him "that there was no sort of danger to the Queen, the young King, or the royal issue, and that all should be well;" to which he replied,- "Be it as well as it will, I assure him it will never be as well as we have seen it." Being at a loss how to dispose of the Great Seal, which he no longer had a right to use, he went to the Queen and unadvisedly delivered it up to her, who certainly could have no right to receive it ;-but repenting his mistake, he soon sent for it back, and it was restored to him.

Rotheram has escaped all suspicion of being knowingly implicated in the criminal projects of Richard; but he was unfortunately made the instrument of materially aiding them. The Queen still resisted all the importunities and threats used to get possession from her of the infant Duke of York, observing" that, by living in sanctuary, he was not only secure

himself, but gave security to his brother, the King, whose life no one would dare to aim at, while his successor and avenger remained in safety."

Richard, with his usual art and deceit, applied himself to Rotheram and another Ex-Chancellor, Archbishop Bourchier, and contrived to persuade them that his intentions were fair, and that his only object in obtaining the release of the young Prince was, that he might keep the King, his brother, company, and walk at his coronation. These holy men at last prevailed with the Queen to give a most reluctant assent. Taking the child by the hand, and addressing Rotheram, she said:"My Lord Archbishop, here he is; for my own part I can never deliver him; but if you will needs have him, take him I will require him at your hands." She was here struck with a kind of presage of his future fate; she tenderly embraced him, she bedewed him with her tears, and bade him an eternal adieu.

Rotheram appears soon after to have surrendered the Great Seal into the hands of the Protector. There is no record of the transfer or delivery of it during the reign of Edward V. But we know that while the young King still lived and his name was used as sovereign, JOHN RUSSELL was appointed to the office, and must have sworn fidelity to that Sovereign. Sir Thomas More, after giving an account of Richard taking upon himself the office of Protector, says :-" At whiche counsayle also the Archebischoppe of York, Chauncellore of Englande, whiche had delivered uppe the Greate Seale to the Queene, was therefore greatly reproved, and the Seale taken from hyme, and delivered to Doctour Russell, Byschoppe of Lincolne." Moreover, there is an original letter extant in the Tower of London, addressed in the name of Edward V. to John Bishop of Lincoln, our Chancellor," and dated "the seconde daie of Juyn, in the furste yere of oure reigne." And Spelman says, though without citing his authority, mortuo rege Edwardo IV. sigillum tradidit (Thomas Rotheram) Reginæ Matri, de qua receptum Io. Russell datur, vivente adhuc Edwardo V."

66

"Hic

But before entering on the life of the new Chancellor, we must conclude our account of the two Archbishops, who for the rest of their days confined themselves to the discharge of their ecclesiastical functions. Bourchier performed the marriage ceremony between Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York,

by which the red and white Roses were united; but his great glory is, that he was one of the chief persons by whose means the art of printing was introduced into England, and that he was a zealous and enlightened patron of reviving learning. He died at his palace of Knowle, near Sevenoaks, on the 30th of March, 1486, and was buried at Canterbury, where his tomb still remains on the north side of the choir, near the high altar. Rotheram did not take any active part in the struggles which ensued, but he was so strongly suspected by Richard III. that he was detained in prison till near the end of this reign, when the Lady Anne had been made away with. He was then liberated on account of his great influence over the Queen Dowager, that he might persuade her to agree to a marriage between her daughter Elizabeth and the murderer of her sons-which would have taken place if Richmond had been repulsed. After the battle of Bosworth, the Ex-Chancellor quietly submitted to the new government, but he was looked upon with no favour by Henry VII., who to the last retained his Lancastrian prejudices, and was desirous to depress all the partisans of the House of York. He died of the plague, at Cawood, in the year 1500, aged 76, and was buried in his own cathedral. He was founder of Lincoln College, Oxford, and showed his affection to the place of his nativity by building a college there, with three schools for grammar, writing, and music.

The Protector was wading through slaughter to a throne when he appointed John Russell to the office of Chancellor to the young King whom he had doomed to destruction. Yet this Prelate, though he did not altogether escape suspicion, appears to have been unstained by the crimes of his patron; and he is celebrated by most of the chroniclers of that period for uncommon learning, piety, and wisdom. He was probably selected by Richard as a man who, from his mild disposition, would not be dangerous to him, and whose character might bring some credit to his cause.

I do not find any distinct account of this John Russell's parentage. He was most likely of the Bedford family, who, having held a respectable but not brilliant position in the West of England since the Conquest, were now rising into eminence. He was born in the parish of St. Peter, in the

e In 1735 his vault was opened, and a head of good sculpture in wood was found, supposed to be a resemblance of him.-Will.

York. 156, 180.

f John Russell, a lineal ancestor of the present Duke, was Speaker of the House of

suburbs of the city of Winchester, in the beginning of the reign of Henry VI. Having studied some years at the school recently established by William of Wickham in the place of his birth, he was removed to the University of Oxford. Here he made particular proficiency in the canon law, and took the degree of Doctor in this faculty. In 1449 he was elected a fellow of New College, and residing there he still increased his academical reputation." He was made a prebendary of Salisbury, and Archdeacon of Berkshire,-when he removed to Court, and was much noticed by Edward IV. In 1476 he was consecrated Bishop of Rochester, and in 1480 he was translated to the see of Lincoln. He was a man of very bland manners, and as he rose in the world, made himself still very acceptable to those above him, and popular with all ranks. He was left by Edward IV. one of his executors, and his appointment as Chancellor to the infant Sovereign was generally approved of.

We are not informed how the new Chancellor employed himself in the short interval during which the government was allowed to be carried on in the name of Edward V.; but as he is not mentioned in connection with the scenes of open violence which ensued, and no serious charge of treachery was urged against him when the Lancastrians triumphed, we are bound to believe that the usurpation was planned and effected without his privity, though, like most others in the kingdom, he was not unwilling to recognise the usurper. We must remember that the revolution proceeded on the ground that Richard was the right heir;-that the two young Princes, though set aside, still survived when he gave in his adhesion; -and that there is great reason to think that Edward actually walked at the coronation of his cruel uncle.'

Two days after the ridiculous farce acted at Guildhall, under the management of Buckingham, which Shakspeare has made so familiar to us, John Russell had the Great Seal again delivered to him, as Chancellor to Richard III., and he swore allegiance to the new King. The ceremony took place at Baynard's Castle in Thames Street, the residence of

Commons in the second parliament of Hen. VI., which met in 1432. Wiffen, in his "History of the House of Russell," does not mention the Chancellor,-perhaps from a shyness to acknowledge him on account of his connection with Richard III., and the suspicion under which he unjustly laboured

of having betrayed two sovereigns to whom
he had sworn allegiance.

g Wood, Hist. et Ant. Oxon. 413.
h Ibid. 413, 414.

i So far Horace Walpole, I think, succeeds, although he fails egregiously in making Richard both handsome and virtuous.