Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

XIX.

and it was enacted "that the Chancellor of England should CHAP. deliver to those who would have them good and just weights of the noble, half noble, and farthing of gold, to prevent the Dec. 1. people being abused by such as were counterfeit."*

1421.

tration of

During this reign the equity jurisdiction of the Chancellor Adminis was so actively enforced, that some have ascribed its origin justice to the chancellorship of Cardinal Beaufort. He first exercised during his reign.

a control over the marriage of infants, and along with uses and trusts he took cognisance of many miscellaneous matters, which would now be referred to courts of common law either civil or criminal. †

It may be remarked, that at this period of our history there was an unusual ferment in men's minds, and the Commons showed a strong spirit of innovation both in church and state, so that there seemed a great probability that important changes would be introduced with respect to the maintenance of the clergy and the administration of justice; but the absorbing foreign war in which the country was engaged preserved all our institutions untouched by legislation during the whole reign of Henry V.

* 1 Parl. Hist. 340.

† See 2 Cooper on Records, 361.

CHAPTER XX.

CHANCELLORS FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN OF
HENRY VI. TILL THE DEATH OF CARDINAL BEAUFORT.

CHAP.
XX.

Sept. 1. 1422. Lord

Longley resigns

HENRY VI. was, at his father's death, an infant of nine months old. The Duke of Gloucester, his uncle, having been named Regent of England by the late King, was at first allowed to assume the government under that title. At the Chancellor end of a month a council was held at Windsor, at which the baby monarch in his nurse's arms was present, and was supposed to preside. Longley, Lord Chancellor to the late King, put the Great Seal into the royal lap, and placed upon it the hands of the child, who was too young even to be amused with it as a toy. The Regent then, in the King's name, delivered it to Simon Gaunstede, the Master of the Rolls, for the despatch of necessary business.*

Great Seal

to infant

King.

Nov. 1422.
A parlia-

ment.

But the Regent soon found that he could not exercise his authority without the sanction of the legislature, and a commission passed the Great Seal for a new parliament to be held before him.

The session was opened, by his command, with a speech from Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury. Business being begun, it is stated in the Parliamentary History, that the two bishops of Durham and London, the former having been Chancellor of England in the late reign, and the other Chancellor of the Duchy of Normandy, who had both delivered up the several seals of their offices, prayed to be discharged by act of parliament, and that the same might be enrolled,-which was granted. It was then also enacted, that the King's style and titles should be changed, and that upon

*

"Præfatus Dominus Rex nunc sigillum illud per manus præfati Ducis prædicto Simoni liberavit custodiendum," &c. Rot. Cl. 1 Hen. 6. m. 15.

XX.

all his seals should be engraven, "Henricus Rex Franciæ et CHAP. Angliæ, et Dominus Hiberniæ." At the request of the Commons, the Duke of Gloucester declared that the King had Longley appointed the Bishop of Durham to be his Chancellor, which reappointed appointment was confirmed by parliament.*

Chancellor.

In reality, the whole administration was arranged by the Lords and Commons, who had been gradually extending their influence during the reigns of the Lancastrian Princes. Disregarding the will of the late King, they declined altogether the name of "Regent" for England. They appointed the Duke of Bedford" Protector" of that kingdom, a title which they thought implied less authority; they invested the Duke of Duke of Gloucester with the same dignity during the absence of his elder brother-with a council of nine, by whose advice he must act; and the guardianship of the person of the infant King was given to the two Ex-chancellors, the Bishop of Winchester and the Duke of Exeter, with whom it was thought he must be safe, as, from the stain on their birth, they themselves could never aspire to the crown.†

Gloucester,

Protector.

against the

Court of
Chancery.

In this parliament, a vigorous effort was made to limit the Proceedjurisdiction of the Court of Chancery. The Commons pre-ings in parsented a petition to the King, which, if agreed to, would very effectually have preserved the supremacy of the common law, but would have deprived the country of many benefits derived from equitable interference. They proposed, that to prevent persons being called upon to answer in Chancery for any matter for which there is remedy provided by the common law, no one should be allowed to sue any process before the Chancellor till the complainant had sent a bill, containing all the matter of his plaint or grievance, to be approved of by two judges of the King's Bench, or Common Pleas, and they should have certified that for such matter he could not have any action or remedy by the common law.

1 Parl. Hist. 345. Rol. Parl. Hen. 6. vol. xv. 170.

+ In Nov. 1422, a new Great Seal was made, because the King's style in the inscription on the former seals was not suited to the reigning monarch. The order in council recited, that "great peril might ensue to the King if the said seals were not immediately altered," and required the keepers of all the King's seals to cause them to be altered forthwith. Rot. Parl. 1 Hen. 6.

CHAP.
XX.

Lord
Chancel-

But the answer returned in the King's name, by the advice of the council of Regency, was, "Let the statute on this subject, made in the 17th year of the reign of King Richard II., be observed and put in due execution,”* which was, in fact, a veto, and left the Chancellor without control to determine the limits of his own jurisdiction.

Lord Chancellor Longley opened another parliament in lor's speech October, 1423, with a speech from the text, "Deum timete, on opening parliament. Regem honorificate," showing that peculiar honour ought to be rendered to the present King, notwithstanding his tender years, since now this realm had attained their wish, which was that the King of England might also be King of France, and that the love due to the father was due to the son, for omnis qui diligit eum qui genuit diligit eum qui genitus est.†

A. D. 1424.

Disputes between

Duke of Gloucester and Car

dinal Beau

fort.

Longley

The petition or bill against the Court of Chancery, which had for some time been nearly annual, was now dropped; and nothing more memorable was transacted at this parliament than passing an act, "to secure those persons who had only the late King's jewels in pawn, and that the Bishop of Winchester, who had lent the King 20,000 marks on the crown, should have letters patent to receive the said sum out of the customs."+

The great struggle for power between Humphry, Duke of Gloucester, the Protector, and the Bishop of Winchester, his uncle, which produced such calamities, and which ended so fatally to both, was now begun, and the Bishop, from his superior shrewdness and vigour, was gaining the ascendant, although his rival, as Protector, claimed to exercise all the prerogatives of the crown.

Beaufort by intriguing with the council, contrived to redeprived of Great Seal, sume the office of Chancellor, which added both to his wealth Cardinal and his authority. On the 6th of July, 1424, the Great Seal Chancellor was delivered to him for the fourth time.§

Beaufort

the fourth

time.

Rol. Par. 1 Hen. 6.

† 1 Parl. Hist. 347.

Ibid. 348.

§ The Close Roll states with much gravity that the Bishop of Durham surrendered the Great Seal into the hands of the King (not then two years old), and that the King delivered it to the Bishop of Winchester "cujus sacramentum de officio Cancellarii bene et fideliter faciendo præfatus Dominus Rex recepit.' We are told that the Bishop then took it with him to his hospitium of St. Mary Overey, in Southwark, and on the following Monday sat for the despatch of

CHAP.

XX.

of Ex

Longley, who was then forced to resign it, retired to the duties of his diocese, which he fulfilled very reputably till 1437, when he died. He was buried in that beautiful struc- Death and ture at the west end of Durham Cathedral, called the Galilee, character on the restoration of which he had expended a large sum chancellor of money. As an ecclesiastic he is said to have possessed a Longley. love of learning, which he testified by princely donations of books to both the universities, and by legacies to establish public libraries in Durham, Leicester, and Manchester; but he never gave much proof of ability for civil affairs, and his promotion, like that of many others, was probably owing to his mediocrity and his pliancy.

1425.

arms, opens

The Bishop of Winchester, as Chancellor, opened a new April, parliament in the spring of the following year, under very extraordinary circumstances. With a view probably of throwing into the shade the lustre of the office of Protector,on this occasion he produced the King himself, a child of three years old, as ruler of the realm. On the day of meet- Henry VI., ing, the royal infant was carried on a great horse from the in mother's Tower of London through the city to Westminster. Having parliament. taken some pap at the palace, he was from thence conducted to the House of Lords, and sat on his mother's knee on the throne. "It was a strange sight," says Speed, "and the first time it ever was seen in England, an infant sitting in his mother's lap, and before it could tell what English meant, to exercise the place of sovereign direction in open parliament."

Lord

Chancellor

The Chancellor took for his text, "Gloria, honor, et pax, omni operanti bonum." He slyly threw out various sarcasms Beaufort's on his opponents in the council, under pretence of inculcating speech. the duty of the people to obey those who are set over them, although not good in themselves. "But a real good councillor" (meaning himself) "he compared to an elephant for three properties; the one in that he wanted a gall, the second that he was inflexible and could not bow, and the third that he was of a most sound and perfect memory.'

business "in domo capitulari Fratrum Predicatorum infra Ludgate Londoniæ." Rot. Cl. 2 Hen. 6. m. 2.

* 1 Parl. Hist. 351.

« ForrigeFortsæt »