any such maintainor, instigator, barrator, procuror, or embraceor
from his company for this cause, that then no other lord do retain
or receive him of his retinue nor of his company in any manner;
and that none of our lieges, great nor small, of what condition or
estate he be, whether he be of the retinue of any lord, or other
person whatever who belongeth not to any retinue, shall not under-
take any quarrel other than his own, nor shall maintain it, by
himself nor by other, privily nor openly; and that all those who
use and wear such livery called livery of company, contrary to
this our ordinance, shall leave them off altogether within ten
days after the proclamation of this same ordinance, without using
or wearing them any more afterwards; and that Ais our ordinance
be held and firmly kept, and duly executed, in all points, as well
by those who have or shall have people of their retinue, as by all
other persons, in that which to them belongeth touching the same
ordinance, upon pain of imprisonment, fine, and ransom, or of
being punished in other manner, according as shall be advised by
us and our council: wherefore we command and charge you that
incontinently, upon sight hereof, you cause to be published and
proclaimed this our ordinance in cities, boroughs, market towns,
and other public places within your bailiwick, as well within fran-
chise as without, and do cause the same to be holden and duly
sxecuted in all points.

Given under our great seal at Westminster, the twelfth day of
May.

By the king himself and the council.

Like writs are directed to the several sheriffs throughout
England.



97. Conveyances to the Uses of Religious
Houses and other Corporations forbidden, etc.

'February, 1392. French text and translation, 2 S. R, 78. 2 Stubbs, 509, 638.)

3. ITEM, * * * It is declared, ordained and established
that of all manner of contracts, pleas, and quarrels, and all other



Conveyances to Religious Houses Forbidden 155

things rising within the bodies of counties, as well by land, as
by water, * * * and also wreck of the sea, shall be tried deter-
mined, discussed, and remedied by the laws of the land, and
not before nor by the admiral, nor his lieutenant in any wise.
Nevertheless, of the death of a man, and of a mayhem done in
great ships, being and hovering in the main stream of great
rivers, only beneath the bridges of the same rivers most next to
the sea, and in none other places of the same rivers, the admiral
shall have cognizance, and also to arrest ships in the great fleets
for the great voyages of the king and of the realm; saving always
to the king all manner of forfeitures and profits thereof coming;
and he shall have also jurisdiction upon the said fleets, during the
said voyages only : saving always to the lords, cities, and boroughs
their liberties and franchises.

5. Item, whereas it is contained in the statute de religiosis,
* * * and now of late by subtile imagination, and by art, and
device, some religious persons, parsons, vicars, and other spir-
itual persons, have entered in divers lands and tenements, which
be adjoining to the churches, and of the same, by sufferance and
assent of the tenants, have made churchyards, and by bulls of the
bishop of Rome have caused the same to be dedicated and hal-
lowed, and in them do make continually parochial burying with-
out licence of the king and of the chief lords; therefore it is
declared in this parliament, that this is manifestly within the
compass of the said statute. And moreover it is agreed and
assented, that all they that be possessed by feoffment, or by any
other manner, to the use of religious people, or other spiritual
persons, of lands and tenements, fees, advowsons, or any manner
other possessions whatsoever, to amortise them, and whereof the
said religious and spiritual persons take the profits, that betwixt
this and the feast of Saint Michael next coming, they shall cause
them to be amortised by the licence of the king and of the lords,
or else that they shall sell and aliene them to some other use
between this and the said feast, upon pain to be forfeited to the
king, and to the lords, according to the form of the said statute
of religious, as lands purchased by religious people: and that
from henceforth no such purchase be made, so that such religious
or other spiritual person take thereof the profits, as afore is said,
upon pain aforesaid ; and that this same statute extend and be
observed of all lands, tenements, fees, advowsons, and other pos-
sessions, purchased or to be purchased to the use of guilds or
fraternities. And moreover it is assented, because mayors,
bailiffs, and commons of cities, boroughs, and other towns which



156 English Constitutional Documents

have a perpetual commonalty, and others which have offices per-
petual be as perpetual as people of religion, that from henceforth
they shall not purchase to them, and to their commons or office,
upon the pain contained in the said statute de religiosis; * * *

12. Item, * * * it is agreed and assented, that from henceforth
none of the king's subjects be compelled, neither by any mean
constrained, to come nor to appear before the council of any lord
or lady, to answer for his freehold, nor any for anything touching
his freehold, nor for any other thing, real or personal, that belong-
eth to the law of the land in any manner : and if any find himself
grieved in time to come, contrary to this ordinance and agree-
ment, he may complain to the chancellor for the time being, and
he shall give him remedy.



98. The Second Statute of Praemunire

(May, 1393. 16 Richard II. c. 5. French text and translation, 2 S. K.
84. 2 Stubbs, 435, 509, 3 Stubbs, 341, 363.)

5. ITEM, whereas the commons of the realm in this present
parliament have showed to our redoubted lord the king, griev-
ously complaining, that whereas the said our lord the king,
and all his liege people, ought of right, and of old time were
wont to sue in the king's court, to recover their presentments to
churches, prebends, and other benefices of holy Church, to the
which they had right to present, the cognizance of the plea of
which suit belongeth only to the king's court of the old right of
his crown, used and approved in the time of all his progenitors
kings of England; and when judgment shall be given in the same
court upon such a plea and suit, the archbishops, bishops, and
other spiritual persons which have institution of such benefices
within their jurisdiction, be bound, and have made execution of
such judgments by the king's commandments of all the time
aforesaid without interruption, for another, lay-person, may not
make such execution, and also be bound of right to make execu-
tion of many other of the king's commandments, of which right
the crown of England hath been peaceably seised, as well in the
time of our said lord the king that now is, as in the time of all
his progenitors till this day : but now of late divers processes be
made by the holy father the pope and censures of excommunica-
tion upon certain bishops of England, because they have made



The Second Statute of Praemunire 157

execution of such commandments, to the open disherison of the
said crown, and destruction of the regalty of our said lord the
king, his law, and all his realm, if remedy be not provided : and
also it is said, and a common clamor is made, that the said father
the pope hath ordained and purposed to translate some prelates
of the same realm, some out of the realm, and some from one
bishopric into another within the same realm, without the king's
assent and knowledge, and without the assent of the prelates,
which so shall be translated, which prelates be much profitable
and necessary to our said lord the king, and to all his realm; by
which translations, if they should be suffered, the statutes of the
realm should be defeated and made void; and his said liege sages
of his council, without his assent, and against his will, carried
away and gotten out of his realm, and the substance and treasure
of the realm shall be carried away, and so the realm destitute as
well of council as of substance, to the final destruction of the
same realm; and so the crown of England, which hath been so
free at all times, that it hath been in subjection to no realm, but
immediately subject to God in all things touching the regalty of
the same crown, and to none other, should be submitted to the
pope, and the laws and statutes of the realm by him defeated and
avoided at his will, in perpetual destruction of the sovereignty of
the king our lord, his crown, his regalty, and of all his realm,
which God defend : and moreover, the commons aforesaid say,
that the said things so attempted be clearly against the king's
crown and his regalty, used and approved of the time of all his
progenitors; wherefore they and all the liege commons of the
same realm will stand with our said lord the king, and his said
crown, and his regalty, in the cases aforesaid, and in all other
cases attempted against him, his crown, and his regalty in all
points, to live and to die; and moreover they pray the king, and
him require by way of justice, that he would examine all the
lords in the parliament, as well spiritual as temporal severally,
and all the states of the parliament, how they think of the cases
aforesaid, which be so openly against the king's crown, and in
derogation of his regalty, and how they will stand in the same
cases with our lord the king, in upholding the rights of the said
crown and regalty : Whereupon the lords temporal so demanded,
have answered every one by himself, that the cases aforesaid be
clearly in derogation of the king's crown, and of his regalty, as it
is well known, and hath been of a long time known, and that they
will stand with the same crown and regalty in these cases specially,
and in all other cases which shall be attempted against the same



158 English Constitutional Documents

crown and regalty in all points, with all their power : and more-
over it was demanded of the lords spiritual there being, and the
procurators of others being absent, their advice and will in all
these cases; which lords, that is to say, the archbishops, bishops,
and other prelates, being in the said parliament severally exam-
ined, making protestations, that it is not their mind to say, nor
affirm, that our holy father the pope may not excommunicate
bishops, nor that he may make translation of prelates after law
of holy Church, answered and said, that if any execution of pro-
cesses made in the king's court, as before, be made by any, and
censures of excommunications be made against any bishops of
England, or any other of the king's liege people, for that they
have made execution of such commandments, and that if any
executions of such translations be made of any prelates of the
same realm, which lords be very profitable and necessary to our
said lord the king and to his said realm, or that his sage men of
his council, without his assent, and against his will, be removed
and carried out of the realm, so that the substance and treasure
of the realm may be consumed, that the same is against the king
and his crown, as it is contained in the petition before named:
and likewise the same procurators, every one by himself exam-
ined upon the said matters, have answered and said in the same,
and for their lords, as the said bishops have said and answered,
and that the said lords spiritual will and ought to stand with the
king in these cases lawfully in maintaining of his crown, and in
all other cases touching his crown and his regalty, as they be
bound by their liegeance : whereupon our said lord the king, by
the assent aforesaid, and at the request of his said commons,
hath ordained and established, that if any purchase or pursue, or
cause to be purchased or pursued in the court of Rome, or else-
where, any such translations, processes, and sentences of excom-
munications, bulls, instruments, or any other things whatsoever,
which touch the king our lord, against him, his crown, and his
regalty, or his realm, as is aforesaid, and they which bring them
within the realm, or them receive, or make thereof notification
or any other execution whatsoever within the same realm or with-
out, that they, their notaries, procurators, maintainors, abettors,
fautors, and counsellors, shall be put out of the king's protec-
tion, and their lands and tenements, goods and chattels, forfeit
to our lord the king; and that they be attached by their bodies,
if they may be found, and brought before the king and his coun-
cil, there to answer to the cases aforesaid, or that process be
made against them by prczmunire facias, in manner as it is



Delegation of Powers by Parliament 159

ordained in other statutes of provisors, and other which do sue
in the court of another in derogation of the regalty of our lord
the king.

99. New Definition of Treason

(September, 1397. French text and translation, 2 S. R. 94.' 2 Stubbs,
520, 3 Stubbs, 537.)



3. ITEM, it is ordained and stablished, that every
which compasseth or purposeth the death of the king, or
to depose him, or to render up his liege homage, or he that
raiseth people and rideth against the king to make war within his
realm, and of that be duly attainted and judged in the parlia-
ment, shall be judged as a traitor of high treason against the
crown; and he for him and his heirs shall forfeit all the lands,
tenements and possessions, liberties and all other hereditaments,
which he hath or any other hath to his use, or had the day of the
treason done, as well in fee tail as in fee simple, to the king and
his heirs, as well such lands holdenof other as of himself forever;
and also such possession as other have to his use. * * *



100. Delegation of Powers by Parliament
of Shrewsbury

(1398. French original, 3 R. P. 368, No. 74. Translation by Editors.
2 Stubbs, 522.)

FEM, the same Thursday, the commons prayed the king, as
they had divers petitions before them both for special per-
sons and others, neither read nor answered, and also several other
matters and affairs which had been moved in the presence of the
king, which, because of the shortness of the time, could not well
be satisfactorily determined at present: That it should please the
king to give full power to certain lords, and to other persons
whom it should please him, to examine, answer, and determine
the said petitions and the matters and affairs aforesaid and all
the dependencies of the same. To which prayer the king assented.
And thereupon, with the authority and assent of parliament, were



160 English Constitutional Documents

ordained and appointed John duke of Lancaster, Edmond duke
of York, Edward duke of Albemarle, Thomas duke of Surrey, John
duke of Exeter, John marquis of Dorset, Roger earl of March,
John earl of Salisbury, Henry earl of Northumberland, Thomas
earl of Gloucester, Thomas earl of Worcester, and Thomas earl
of Wiltshire, or six of them; John Bussey, Henry Green, John
Russell, Richard Chelmswick, Robert Teye, and John Golafre,
knights coming for the parliament, or three of them, to examine,
answer, and plainly determine both all the said petitions and the
matters contained in them, and all other matter and affairs moved
in the presence of the king and all the dependences of the same
not determined, according as it seemed best to them by their good
advice and discretion in this matter by authority of the said
parliament.



101. Grant of Subsidy for Life to Richard II
by Parliament of Shrewsbury

(1398. French original, 3 J?. P. 368, No. 75. Translation by Editors.
2 Stubbs, 522.)

ITEM, the same day, the commons of the realm, with assent
of the lords spiritual and temporal, granted to the king the
subsidy of wools, leather, and woolfells for the term of his life,
and one fifteenth, and tenth, and half a fifteenth and half a tenth,
in the following manner and form.

To the reverence of God and of Holy Church, and for the good
and peace of the realm, and for the full affection and complete
confidence which the commons of the realm have in our very
redoubtable lord the king, the said commons with the assent of
the lords spiritual and temporal, at the parliament summoned
and commenced at Westminster and adjourned to Shrewsbury,
have granted to our said lord the king the subsidy of wools,
leather, and woolfells leaving the kingdom which the king takes
at present, to have during the life of our said lord the king.
And also six shillings, eight pence on the sack of wool and of
leather, and woolfells, to be levied from foreigners over and above
that accustomed to be paid for a sack of wool before this time :
On protest that this grant be not considered either a precedent
or example in the time of the succeeding kings of England in
time to come. And also, for the great love and full affection
which our said lord the king has for his said commons, the said



Resignation of Richard II 161

commons with assent of the lords spiritual and temporal, have
granted to our said lord the king one entire fifteenth and tenth,
and one half-fifteenth and half-tenth, to be levied on the people
in the manner customary before this time, to the terms under-
written : that is to say, one half-fifteenth and half-tenth, in the
month of St. Michael next to come, and another half-fifteenth
and half-tenth, on the fifteenth of Easter then next ensuing; and
another half-fifteenth and half-tenth on the fifteenth of St.
Michael thereafter next ensuing.



102. Resignation of Richard II

(1399. Latin original, 3 X. P. 416. Translation by Editors. 2 Stubbs,
528, 529, 3 Stubbs, 14, 528.)

IN God's name, Amen. I, Richard, by the grace of God, king
of England and France, and lord of Ireland, absolve all arch-
bishops and bishops of the said kingdoms and lordships, and all
other prelates whatsoever of secular or regular churches of what-
soever dignity, rank, state, or condition they may be, and dukes,
marquises, earls, barons, knights, vassals, and vavassors and all
my liege men, clerical or secular by whatsoever name they are
known, from the oath of fealty and homage and all others what-
soever made to me and from every bond of allegiance, royalty
and lordship with which they have been or are bound by oath to
me, or bound in any other way whatsoever; and these and their
heirs and successors in perpetuity from these bonds and oaths and
all other bonds whatsoever, I relieve, free, and excuse; absolved,
excused and freed as far as pertains to my person, I release them
from every performance of their oath which could follow from
their promises or from any of them; and all royal dignity and
majesty and royalty and also the lordship and power in the said
realms and lordship; and my other lordships and possessions or
whatsoever others belong to me in any way, under whatsoever
name they are known, which are in the aforesaid realms and
lordships or elsewhere; and all right and color of right, and
title, possessions, and lordship which I have ever had, still have
or shall be able to have in any way, in these or any of them, or
to these with their rights and everything pertaining to them or
dependent upon them in any way whatsoever; from these or any
of them; and also the command, government, and administra-
tion of such realms and lordships; and all and every kind of



1 62 English Constitutional Documents

absolute and mixed sovereignty and jurisdiction in these realms
and lordships belonging to me or to belong to me; the name and
honor and royal right and title of king, freely, voluntarily, une-
quivocally, and absolutely, and in the best fashion, wise, and
form possible, in these writings I renounce, and resign as a
whole, and release in word and deed, and yield my place in
them, and retire from them forever.

Saving to my successors, kings of England, in the realms and
lordships and all other premises in perpetuity, the rights belong-
ing or to belong to them, in them or in any of them, I confess,
acknowledge, consider, and truly judge from sure knowledge
that I in the rule and government of the said realms and lord-
ships and all pertaining to them have been and am wholly insuf-
ficient and useless, and because of my notorious deserts am not
unworthy to be deposed. And I swear on these holy gospels
touched bodily by me that I will never contravene these premises
of renunciation, resignation, demise and surrender, nor will I
impugn them in any way, in deed or in word by myself or by
another or others, or as far as in me lies permit them to be con-
travened or impugned publicly or secretly, but I will hold this
renunciation, resignation, demise, and surrender unalterable and
acceptable and I will keep it firmly and observe it in whole and
in every part; so may God help me and these holy scriptures of
God. I, Richard, the aforesaid king, subscribe myself with my
own hand.



103. Deposition of Richard II and Election
of Henry IV

(1399. Latin and English original, 3 R. P. 422. Translation by Editors.
2 Stubbs, 528, 531, 3 Stubbs, 13, 14.)

51. AND since it seemed to all these estates, after they had
made examination separately and also together, that these
crimes and shortcomings were sufficient and notorious enough
for the deposition of the said king, having considered his
confession concerning his own insufficiency and the other
things contained in the said renunciation and surrender openly
set forth, all the abovesaid estates unanimously agreed that for
these abundant reasons they should proceed to the deposition of
the said king, for the greater safety and tranquillity of the people
and for the security of the realm.



Deposition of Richard II 163

Then the aforesaid estate unanimously and amicably appointed
certain commissioners, namely the bishop of St. Asaph, the abbot
of Glastonbury, the earl of Gloucester, the lord of Berkeley,
Thomas Erpingham and Thomas Gray, knights, and Wm. Thirn-
ing, justice, and then publicly deputed them to carry out the
sentence of such deposition and to depose the said king Richard
from all the dignity, majesty and honor of a king, in the place
of and with the name and authority of all the aforesaid estates,
as had been observed in like cases of the ancient custom of the
realm. And thereupon the said commissioners, taking upon
themselves the burden of such a commission and seating them-
selves before the said royal throne as the tribunal, some delibera-
tion having been held previously respecting these things, brought
the sentence of deposition reduced to writing, in the place of
and with the name and authority of the aforesaid and they had
the said sentence of the will and command of the commissioners,
read and delivered by the said bishop of St. Asaph, their fellow
commissioner and colleague, in the following words:

52. In the name of God, Amen. We, John bishop of St.
Asaph, John abbot of Glastonbury, Thomas earl of Gloucester,
Thomas lord Berkeley, Thomas Erpingham and Thomas Gray,
knights, and William Thirning, justice, for the peers and nobles
of the realm of England spiritual and temporal, and for the
commons of the realm, representing all the estates of this
realm, commissioners specially deputed for the writings below,
seated before the tribunal, after having considered the very many
perjuries, and the cruelty, and many other crimes of the said
Richard, which he has committed and perpetrated in respect to
his rule in the above mentioned realms and lordship throughout
the time of his rule and having openly and publicly proposed,
shown, and declared them in the presence of the said estates;
which have been and are so public, notorious, plainly manifest,
and famous that none have been able or are able to be concealed
by subterfuge; and also by the confession of the aforesaid Richard
who acknowledges and considers and truly judges from his own
sure knowledge that he has been and is utterly insufficient and
useless in the rule and government of the aforesaid realms and
lordship and those things pertaining to them, and on account of
his notorious deserts is not unworthy to be deposed, which was
set forth previously by Richard himself, and published accord-
ing to his will and command in the presence of the said estates,
and by them made known and explained to the public, and
diligent deliberation having previously been held concerning



164 English Constitutional Documents

these and all things involved in this business in the presence of
the aforesaid estates and by us, in the representation, name and
authority committed to us in the matter, for abundant reason and