flour, all manner of fresh fish, bestial, and wine, into this your realm coming, ale, and all manner victual going out of this your said realm for the victualing of your town of Calais, and of the marches there under your obeyance, out of this grant always except to have and to receive yearly the said subsidy of poundage, from the said first day of this present parliament, during your natural life; except afore except. And if any concealment be found in the merchants of the duty aforesaid, that they for such concealment pay thereof only the double subsidy, without any other hurt of forfeiture in that behalf; and that these grants be not taken in ensample to the kings of England in time to come. And that it may please your Highness, that as well merchants denizens, as strangers, coming into this your said realm with their merchandises, be well and honestly entreated and demeaned in their subsidies and all other things, and that the said merchants be entreated and demeaned as they were in the time of your noble progenitors, without oppression to be done to the merchants aforesaid, by the treasurer of England for the time being, customers, controllers, searchers, or any other your officers, paying their subsidies abovesaid. And that the said subsidies and every parcel of them, be employed and applied for the safeguard and keeping of the sea, and defense of this your said realm, in manner and form as it is before rehearsed. And over that, we your said poor commons, by the assent aforesaid, grant to you, our said sovereign lord, for the great affection and true humble hearts that we have to your Highness, for the defense of this your noble realm, a subsidy of wools, woolfells and hides, to be paid and levied in manner and form that followeth; that is to say, of every merchant denizen, for the subsidy of every sack of wool, xxxiiis. iiiid., and of every ccxl woolfells, xxxiiis. iiiid., and of every last of hides lxvis. viiid.; to have and receive the said subsidy, from the said first day of this present parliament, for term of your life: and of every merchant stranger, not born your liegeman, as well those that be made denizens, as hereafter shall be made by your letters patents or otherwise, as of other merchants strangers, of every sack of wool, lxvis. viiid., and of every ccxl woolfells, lxvis. viiid., and of every last of hides, lxxiiis. iiiid., going out of this your said realm; to have and to receive the said subsidies of the merchandises of the said aliens, from the said first day of this present parliament, during your natural life: the one half of all the said subsidies, by the merchants denizens to be paid at the end of six months next after the going out of the merchandises, and the other half at the end of six months then next following, for to dispose and ordain after your right gracious will and discretion for the defense abovesaid. *** 133. An Act to free Subjects from (1484. French text and translation, 2 S. R. 478. 3 Stubbs, 219, 237.) 2. THE king remembering how the commons of this his realm by new and unlawful inventions and inordinate covetousness, against the law of this realm, have been put to great thraldom and importable charges and exactions, and in especial by a new imposition named a benevolence, whereby divers years the subjects and commons of this land against their wills and freedom have paid great sums of money to their almost utter destruction; for divers and many worshipful men of this realm by occasion thereof were compelled by necessity to break up their households and to live in great penury and wretchedness, their debts unpaid and their children unpreferred, and such memorials as they had ordained to be done for the wealth of their souls were made void and annulled, to the great displeasure of God and to the destruction of this realm; therefore the king will it be ordained, by the advice and assent of his lords spiritual and temporal and the commons of this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that his subjects and the commonalty of this his realm from henceforth in no wise be charged by none such charge or imposition called benevolence, nor by such like charge; and that such exactions called benevolences, afore this time taken be taken for no example to make such or any like charge of any his said subjects of this realm hereafter, but it be dampned and annulled forever. 134. Recognition of the Title of Henry VII (1485. Henry VII. c. 1. 2 S. R. 499.) HENRY, [ENRY, by the grace of God, king of England and of France, and lord of Ireland, at the parliament holden at Westminster the seventh day of November, in the first year of the reign of King Henry, the seventh after the conquest. To the pleasure of Almighty God, the wealth, prosperity and surety of this realm of England, to the singular comfort of all the king's subjects of the same and in avoiding of all ambiguities and questions, with the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and at the request of the commons, it is ordained, established and enacted by authority of this present parliament, that the inheritances of the crowns of the realms of England and of France, with all the permanence and royal dignity to the same pertaining, and all other seigniuriez to the king belonging beyond the sea with the appurtenances thereto in any wise due or pertaining, be, rest, remain and abide in the most royal person of our now sovereign lord King Henry the VIIth and in the heirs of his body lawfully coming, perpetually with the grace of God so to endure and in none other. 135. An Act against bringing in of Gascony Wine, except in English, Irish, or Welshmen's Ships I (1485. 1 Henry VII. c. 8. 2 S. R. 502.) TEM, in the said parliament it was called to remembrance of the great minishing and decay that hath been now of late time of the navy within this realm of England, and idleness of the mariners within the same, by the which this noble realm within short process of time, without reformation be had therein, shall not be of habilite and power to defend itself: wherefore at the prayer of the said commons, the king our sovereign lord, by the advice of the lords spiritual and temporal, in this said present parliament assembled, and by authority of the same, it is enacted, ordained and established, that no manner person of what degree or condition that he be of, buy nor sell within this said realm, Ireland, Wales, Calais or the marches thereof, or Berwick, from the feast of Michaelmas next now coming, any manner of wines of the growing of the duchy of Guyenne or of Gascony, but such as shall be aventured and brought in an English, Irish or Welshman's ship or ships, and the mariners of the same English, Irish or Welshmen for the more part, or men of Calais or of the marches of the same; and that upon pain of forfeiture of the same wines so bought or sold contrary to this act, the one half of that forfeiture to be to the king our sovereign lord and that other half to the finder of that forfeiture: this act and ordinance to endure betwixt this and the next parliament, saving alway to the king his prerogative. 136. Establishment of the Court of Star Chamber (1487. 3 Henry VII. c. 1. 2 S. R. 509. This text revised from "The Statutes of Henry VII., printed by Caxton in 1489," ed. Rae.) FIR IRST, the king our sovereign lord remembereth how by unlawful maintenances, giving of liveries, signs and tokens, and retainders by indentures, promises, oaths, writings, or otherwise embraceries of his subjects, untrue demeanings of sheriffs in making of panels and other untrue returns, by taking of money by juries, by great riots and unlawful assemblies, the policy and good rule of this realm is almost subdued, and for the none punishing of these inconveniences and by occasion of the premises nothing or little can be found by inquiry, whereby the laws of the land in execution may take little effect, to the increase of murders, robberies, perjuries, and unsureties of all men living and losses of their lands and goods, to the great displeasure of Almighty God; therefore it is ordained for reformation of the premises by the authority of the said parliament, that the chancellor and treasurer of England for the time being and keeper of the king's privy seal, or two of them, calling to him a bishop and a temporal lord of the king's most honourable council, and the two chief justices of the king's bench and common pleas for the time being, or other two justices in their absence, upon bill or information put to the said chancellor for the king, or any other, against any person for any misbehaving before rehearsed, have authority to call before them by writ or privy seal the said misdoers, and them and other by their discretions by whom the truth may be known to examine, and such as they find therein defective to punish them after their demerits, after the form and effect of statutes thereof made, in like manner and form as they should and ought to be punished if they were thereof convict after the due order of the law. 137. Allegiance to a De Facto King not Treason (1495. 11 Henry VII. c. 1. 2 S. R. 568.) THE HE king our sovereign lord, calling to his remembrance the duty of allegiance of his subjects of this his realm, and that they by reason of the same are bound to serve their prince and sovereign lord for the time being in his wars for the defence of him and the land against every rebellion, power and might reared against him, and with him to enter and abide in service in battle if the case so require; and that for the same service what fortune ever fall by chance in the same battle against the mind and weal of the prince, as in this land some time past hath been seen, that it is not reasonable, but against all laws, reason, and good conscience that the said subjects going with their sovereign lord in wars, attending upon him in his person or being in other places by his commandment within this land or without, anything should lose or forfeit for doing their true duty and service of allegiance it be therefore ordained, enacted and established by the king our sovereign lord by the advice and assent of the lords spiritual and temporal and the commons in this present parliament assembled, and by authority of the same, that from henceforth no manner of person nor persons, whatsoever he or they be, that attend upon the king and sovereign lord of this land for the time being in his person and do him true and faithful service of allegiance in the same, or be in other places by his commandment, in his wars within this land or without, that for the said deed and true duty of allegiance he or they be in no wise convict or attaint of high treason nor of other offences for that cause by act of parliament or otherwise by any process of law, whereby he or any of them shall lose or forfeit life, lands, tenements, rents, possessions, hereditaments, goods, chattels or any other things, but to be for that deed and service utterly discharged of any vexation, trouble |