The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0091/00915.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 34KB | 521 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00915}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of Europe During The Middle Ages
Part XV}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Hallam, Henry}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{king
parliament
commons
footnote
king's
without
ii
upon
lords
might}
$Date{}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of Europe During The Middle Ages
Book:        Book VIII: The Constitutional History Of England
Author:      Hallam, Henry

Part XV

     But whether through the wastefulness of government, or rather because
Edward's legacy, the French war, like a ruinous and interminable lawsuit,
exhausted all public contributions, there was an equally craving demand for
subsidy at the next meeting of parliament.  The commons now made a more
serious stand.  The speaker, Sir James Pickering, after the protestation
against giving offence which has since become more matter of form than,
perhaps, it was then considered, reminded the lords of the council of a
promise made to the last parliament, that, if they would help the king for
once with a large subsidy, so as to enable him to undertake an expedition
against the enemy, he trusted not to call on them again, but to support the
war from his own revenues; in faith of which promise there had been granted
the largest sum that any king of England had ever been suffered to levy within
so short a time, to the utmost loss and inconvenience of the commons, part of
which ought still to remain in the treasury, and render it unnecessary to
burden anew the exhausted people.  To this Scrope, lord steward of the
household, protesting that he knew not of any such promise, made answer by
order of the king, that, "saving the honor and reverence of our lord the king,
and the lords there present, the commons did not speak truth in asserting that
part of the last subsidy should be still in the treasury; it being notorious
that every penny had gone into the hands of Walworth and Philpot, appointed
and sworn treasurers in the last parliament, to receive and expend it upon the
purposes of the war, for which they had in effect disbursed the whole." Not
satisfied with this general justification, the commons pressed for an account
of the expenditure.  Scrope was again commissioned to answer, that, "though it
had never been seen that of a subsidy or other grant made to the king in
parliament or out of parliament by the commons any account had afterwards been
rendered to the commons, or to any other except the king and his officers, yet
the king, to gratify them, of his own accord, without doing it by way of
right, would have Walworth, along with certain persons of the council, exhibit
to them in writing a clear account of the receipt and expenditure, upon
condition that this should never be used as a precedent, nor inferred to be
done otherwise than by the king's spontaneous command." The commons were again
urged to provide for the public defence, being their own concern as much as
that of the king.  But they merely shifted their ground and had recourse to
other pretences.  They requested that five or six peers might come to them, in
order to discuss this question of subsidy. The lords entirely rejected this
proposal, and affirmed that such a proceeding had never been known except in
the three last parliaments; but allowed that it had been the course to elect a
committee of eight or ten from each house, to confer easily and without noise
together.  The commons acceded to this, and a committee of conference was
appointed, though no result of their discussion appears upon the roll.

     Upon examining the accounts submitted to them, these sturdy commoners
raised a new objection.  It appeared that large sums had been expended upon
garrisons in France and Ireland and other places beyond the kingdom, of which
they protested themselves not liable to bear the charge.  It was answered that
Gascony and the king's other dominions beyond sea were the outworks of
England, nor could the people ever be secure from war at their thresholds,
unless these were maintained.  They lastly insisted that the king ought to be
rich through the wealth that had devolved on him from his grandfather.  But
this was affirmed, in reply, to be merely sufficient for the payment of
Edward's creditors.  Thus driven from all their arguments, the commons finally
consented to a moderate additional imposition upon the export of wool and
leather, which were already subject to considerable duties, apologizing on
account of their poverty for the slenderness of their grant. ^l

[Footnote l: Rot. Parl. pp. 35-38.]

     The necessities of government, however, let their cause be what it might,
were by no means feigned; and a new parliament was assembled about seven
months after the last, wherein the king, without waiting for a petition,
informed the commons that the treasurers were ready to exhibit their accounts
before them.  This was a signal victory after the reluctant and ungracious
concession made to the last parliament.  Nine persons of different ranks were
appointed at the request of the commons to investigate the state of the
revenue and the disposition which had been made of the late king's personal
estate.  They ended by granting a poll-tax, which they pretended to think
adequate to the supply required. ^m But in those times no one possessed any
statistical knowledge, and every calculation which required it was subject to
enormous error, of which we have already seen an eminent example. ^n In the
next parliament (3 Ric. II.) it was set forth that only 22,000l. had been
collected by the poll-tax, while the pay of the king's troops hired for the
expedition to Brittany, the pretext of the grant, had amounted for but half a
year to 50,000l.  The king, in short, was more straitened than ever.  His
distresses gave no small advantage to the commons.  Their speaker was
instructed to declare that, as it appeared to them, if the affairs of their
liege lord had been properly conducted at home and abroad, he could not have
wanted aid of his commons, who now are poorer than before.  They pray that, as
the king was so much advanced in age and discretion, his perpetual council
(appointed in his first parliament) might be discharged of their labors, and
that, instead of them, the five chief officers of state, to wit, the
chancellor, treasurer, keeper of the privy seal, chamberlain, and steward of
the household, might be named in parliament, and declared to the commons, as
the king's sole counsellors, not removable before the next parliament.  They
required also a general commission to be made out, similar to that in the last
session, giving powers to a certain number of peers and other distinguished
persons to inquire into the state of the household, as well as into all
receipts and expenses since the king's accession.  The former petition seems
to have been passed over; ^o but a commission as requested was made out to
three prelates, three earls, three bannerets, three knights, and three
citizens. ^p After guarding thus, as they conceived, against malversation, but
in effect rather protecting their posterity than themselves, the commons
prolonged the last imposition on wool and leather for another year.

[Footnote m: Id. p. 57.]

[Footnote n: See Book vii.  Part ii. pp. 175, 176.]

[Footnote o: Nevertheless, the commons repeated it in their schedule of
petitions; and received an evasive answer, referring to an ordinance made in
the first parliament of the king, the application of which is indefinite.
Rot. Parl. p. 82.]

[Footnote p: P. 73.  In Rymer, t. viii. p. 250, the archbishop of York's name
appears among these commissioners, which makes their number sixteen. But it is
plain by the instrument that only fifteen were meant to be appointed.]

     It would be but repetition to make extracts from the rolls of the two
next years; we have still the same tale - demand of subsidy on one side,
remonstrance and endeavors at reformation on the other.  After the tremendous
insurrection of the villeins in 1382 a parliament was convened to advise about
repealing the charters of general manumission, extorted f