Chapter VII: The Stuarts, 1603-1689 236 (8)

[298] 1 Ibid. 1044-1045.

[299] The rate of this grant of tunnage and poundage: Tunnage, 3 s. on every tun of wine imported, save that on the tun of sweet wines the charge was 6 s., and on the awm of Rhenish, 1 s. Poundage, 1 s. on every 20 s. of goods or merchandise imported or exported, except woolen manufactures; on tin and pewter the charge was 2 s. Wool of denizens, 33 s. 4 d. on the sack or 240 woolfells and £3, 6 s., 8 d. on the last of hides.--1 _Parl. Hist._ 1046.

[300] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1069-1070.

[301] Trevelyan, _England Under the Stuarts_, 107.

[302] Medley, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 235.

[303] Prothero, _Statutes and Constitutional Documents, 1559-1625_, lxxv.

[304] Stat. 45 Edw. III, cap. 4.

[305] The case is reported in Prothero, _Stat. and Const. Doc._ 340-342.

[306] 2 _State Trials_, 481.

[307] Prothero, _Stat. and Const. Doc._ 354.

[308] The arguments of Hakewill and Whitelocke are given in detail in Prothero, _Stat. and Const. Doc._ 342-353.

[309] Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 395, quoting from Petyt, _Jus Parliamentum_, 322, 323.

[310] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1122.

[311] Prothero, _Stat. and Const. Doc._ 411.

[312] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1133.

[313] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1159.

[314] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1166.

[315] 2 Gardiner, _Hist. Eng._ _[_1603-1616_]_ 172.

[316] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1179-1180.

[317] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1187.

[318] This was “the revival of the ancient right of Parliamentary impeachment--the solemn accusation of an individual by the Commons at the bar of the Lords--which had lain dormant since the impeachment of the Duke of Suffolk in 1449.” For further details see Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 409 et seq.

[319] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1208.

[320] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1262.

[321] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1300-1301.

[322] 1 Ibid. 1316-1317.

[323] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1361-1363.

[324] 1 Ibid. 1366-1371.

[325] 1 _Parl. Hist._ 1487-1488.

[326] 1 Hallam, _Const. Hist. Eng._ 508, 509.

[327] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 6.

[328] 2 Ibid. 33.

[329] 2 Ibid. 35-37.

[330] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 49, 50.

[331] 2 Ibid. 56.

[332] 2 Ibid. 100, 101.

[333] Arbitrary imprisonment led to the suspension of the right to secure a writ of _habeas corpus_, by direct command and peculiar power of the king. _Vid._ Darnel’s Case in Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 425, 426.

[334] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 207, 208.

[335] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 213.

[336] 2 Ibid. 221.

[337] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 230.

[338] 2 Ibid. 259-260.

[339] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 274, 277, 278.

[340] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 355.

[341] 2 Ibid. 377.

[342] 2 Ibid. 409, 410. The sections which concern taxation:--

Humbly show unto our Sovereign Lord the King, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in Parliament assembled, that whereas it is declared and enacted by a statute made in the reign of King Edward the First, commonly called, _Statutum de tallagio non concedendo_, that no tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the king or his heirs in this realm, without the good-will and assent of the Archbishops, Bishops, Earls, Barons, Knights, Burgesses, and other freemen of the commonalty of this realm; and by authority of Parliament holden in the five and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the Third, it is declared and enacted, that from thenceforth no person shall be compelled to make any loans to the king against his will, because such loans were against reason and the franchise of the land; and by other laws of this realm it is provided, that none should be charged by any charge or imposition, called a Benevolence, nor by such like charge, by which the statutes before mentioned, and the other the good laws and statutes of this realm, your subjects have inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge, not set by common consent in Parliament:

Yet nevertheless, of late divers commissions directed to sundry commissioners in several counties with instructions have issued, by pretext whereof your people have been in divers places assembled, and required to lend certain sums of money unto your Majesty, and many of them upon their refusal so to do, have had an unlawful oath administered unto them, not warrantable by the laws and statutes of this realm, and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance and give attendance before your Privy Council, and in other places; and others of them have been therefore imprisoned, confined, and sundry other ways molested and disquieted: and divers other charges have been laid and levied upon your people in several counties, by Lords Lieutenants, Deputy Lieutenants, Commissioners for Musters, Justices of the Peace and others, by command or direction from your Majesty or your privy Council, against the laws and free customs of this realm....

And whereas of late great companies of soldiers and marines have been dispersed into divers counties of the realm, and the inhabitants against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn, against the laws and customs of the realm, and to the great grievance and vexation of the people....

They do therefore humbly pray your most Excellent Majesty, that no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without common consent by Act of Parliament; and that none be called to make answer, or take such oath, or to give attendance, or be confined, or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same, or for refusal thereof; ... and that your Majesty will be pleased to remove the said soldiers and marines, and that your people may not be burdened in time to come. 2 _Parl. Hist._ 374-6. The Petition of Right may also be found in S. R. Gardiner, _Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625-1660_, 66-70; Adams and Stephens, _Sel. Doc._ 339-342. Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 430-433.

[343] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 66, note 2.

[344] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 432.

[345] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 433-434.

[346] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 442, 443.

[347] 2 Ibid. 449, 453.

[348] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 454.

[349] 2 Ibid. 482.

[350] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 457, 491.

[351] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 82, 83; 2 _Parl. Hist._ 491.

[352] “The king’s declaration of the causes of the late dissolution.” Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 83-99; 2 _Parl. Hist._ 492-504.

[353] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 525.

[354] 2 Hallam, _Const. Hist. Eng._ 15.

The “parchments in the Tower” might readily have included the following, which exhibits an historical precedent for the ship money:

“1008. Rex Anglorum Aegelredus de ccc. x. cassatis unam trierem, de novem vero loricam et cassidem fieri, et per totam Angliam naves intente praecipit fabricari.” 1 Florentii Wigorniensis Monachi, _Chronicon ex Chronicis_, 160.

1 Freeman, _Norman Conquest_, 647, note LL., cites 3 _Codex Diplomaticus_, 351, to show that before 1008 a levy of ships was not unknown. Archbishops Aelfric upon his death gave to the people of Wiltshire and Kent a ship. Wiltshire is an inland county. It is justifiable, then, to believe that “per totam Angliam” may be taken literally, and that Ethelred really exacted a ship from every 310 hides throughout England.

[355] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 105-108.

[356] Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 443; Trevelyan, _England Under the Stuarts_, 163.

[357] Clarendon, _History of the Rebellion_, i, 136.

[358] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 108, note 2.

[359] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 108, 109.

[360] 2 Hallam, _Const. Hist. Eng._ 23.

[361] Mr. St. John did not enter into a consideration of the legality of the modern impositions of the outports, levied by authority of the Crown.

[362] The digest of the argument here given is based upon that of Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 446, 447, who follows closely 2 Hallam, _Const. Hist. Eng._ 23-27. Extracts from St. John’s speech are given in Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 109-115.

[363] Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 448. 2 Hallam, _Const. Hist. Eng._ 30.

[364] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 532, 533.

[365] 2 Ibid. 561, 562.

[366] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 362, 363.

[367] 2 Ibid. 568.

[368] 2 Ibid. 570, 571.

[369] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 582, 584.

[370] See the list of members in 2 _Parl. Hist._ 597-629.

[371] Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 455, quoting 1 Clarendon, _Hist._ 171.

[372] The time was from 25th May, to 15th July, 1641.

[373] The Act is given in Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 88-91.

[374] The Act is given in Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 115.

[375] By subsequent statutes, an end was put to purveyance, distraint of knighthood, and forest extension. Parliament then came forward with a grant of six subsidies and a poll tax equivalent to six subsidies more.

[376] 2 Hallam, _Const. Hist. Eng._ 138, 139.

[377] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 127-155.

[378] For further details see Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 483, 484; and 2 Dowell, _Taxation and Taxes_, 8 et seq.

[379] The text is in Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 512-518 and in Adams and Stephens, _Sel. Doc._ 462-469.

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Transcriber’s note:

—Obvious errors were corrected without note.