Chapter 35
Section 35 of Edward III by William Parsons Warburton. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Pamela Nagami. Fifth Decade, Chapter 2. Internal Affairs of England Till the Death of the King, Part 1. One turns with a sense of relief from the ineffectual and inglorious efforts made by England to recover her lost position abroad, to the parliamentary history of a decade which, though overshadowed by the influence of external disasters,
was fruitful in wholesome legislation and marked by the steady growth of constitutional principles. The first Parliament of Importance, after that of 1369, which had advised Edward to resume the title of King of France, was held at Westminster in the spring of 1371. The customary opening speech was made on this occasion by William of Wickham, Bishop of Winchester and then Lord Chancellor of England, the last of a long unbroken succession of ecclesiastical chancellors.
For one of the earliest acts of this Parliament was to present a petition, praying that, whereas the government of the kingdom had long been carried on by men of Holy Church, who are not justiciable in all cases, from which great mischiefs and damages have come in times past, and more may happen in time to come. Therefore, laymen being able and sufficient, none others shall be made chancellors, barons of the exchequer, or shall be appointed to other
great offices of state for the future. The leader in this anti-clerical movement was the Earl of Pembroke, the king's son-in-law, afterwards taken prisoner at Rochelle. That the demand for the exclusion of ecclesiastics was peremptorily urged and strongly backed by the opinion of the majority is evidenced by the fact that it was immediately complied with, and Sir Richard Lascroop was appointed treasurer in the place of the Bishop of Exeter, and Sir Robert Thorpe, Lord Chancellor,
to supersede the Bishop of Winchester, though that prelate stood at the time higher than any other subject in the favor and confidence of the king. This measure was shortly afterwards reversed, and ecclesiastical chancellors continued to be appointed up to the 16th century. But its temporary adoption by Parliament enables us to measure the change which had taken place in the relative strength of the constituents of that assembly, and in its bearing with respect
to the king and his ministers. But other influences from an opposite quarter contributed to its success. While the independence and authority of the commons were advancing with rapid strides, a powerful party with a reactionary tendency toward feudalism had made its appearance at the head of which was John, Duke of Lancaster, to whose hereditary pride the professional arrogance of the bishops and their monopoly of political and court influence were alike
intolerable. The sequel would seem to show that we should be in error in attributing statesmanlike or patriotic views to this prince, but he had the good fortune to enlist on his side the great John Wycliffe, who was now beginning the work of his life, the emancipation of his country from ecclesiastical tyranny. One object they certainly had in common, the apostolic poverty of the clergy. Wycliffe's position, which he here took up and vigorously maintained to the end, was this,
neither prelates nor doctors, priests or deacons should hold secular offices. But now, said he, Benefices, instead of being bestowed on poor clerks, are heaped on a kitchen clerk, or one wise in building castles, or in worldly business. A manifest allusion to the skill in architecture to which the late Chancellor, William of Wickham, Bishop of Winchester, originally owed his advancement. Immediately on the appointment of that prelate's successor,
a petition was presented with reference to the inefficiency of the navy, the condition of which was a source of great anxiety to this Parliament and to those of the two following years, in the first of which it was reduced almost to extinction by the disaster at Rochelle. The Assembly had no intention of mincing matters and at once laid the cause of the decline of the navy plainly before the King. They represented that in consequence of the withdrawal of the franchises of many seaports
they were ruined and uninhabited, and the shipping nearly annihilated, that merchants were so interfered with in their affairs by various ordinances of the king that they had no employment for their ships, and consequently hauled them up on the shore to rot, that the masters of the king's ships impressed and took the ablest seamen of other vessels, which were thus left without persons to manage them, so that many of them were lost and their owners ruined. It will be seen from
this language that little distinction was thought of between the mercantile and naval marine, and that the efficiency of the one was supposed to stand or fall with that of the other. In the next Parliament, the following petition was presented. Also pray the Commons, as merchants and mariners of England, that whereas twenty years since and at all times before the navy of the kingdom was in all ports and towns on the seas and rivers so noble and so plentiful that all
countries deemed and called our Lord the King of the Sea, and now that it is so decreased and destroyed by different causes that in case of need there remains hardly enough to defend the country, we thereby pray as a work of charity a suitable remedy. Edward answered evasively, as was sometimes his wont, that it was the king's pleasure that the navy should be maintained and kept with the greatest ease and profit that could be, but a subsidy of no less than fifty thousand pounds
had already been granted for the reorganization and maintenance of the fleet and the other defenses of the country. The prosperity of the nation and its financial resources had fallen to a very low ebb at the commencement of this last decade of the reign. Wheat had gone up 100 percent and stood at a famine price in the year 1369-70. Amidst the universal depression and distress, the church alone was wealthy and flourishing, and had in fact received, during the last 75 years,
large accessions of landed property illegally because, in violation of the statute of Mortmain, passed in the reign of Edward I. The Parliament, following up its first victory over the Church, determined that the money now voted should be raised by a levy of 22 shillings thruppence on every parish of the kingdom, and that the tax should be taken on all lands which, since the 18th year of Edward I had passed into Mortmain. Now, Mortmain, or dead hand, was an expression
used with reference to the property of corporations, which yielded no personal feudal services, was held in perpetual succession, and hitherto exempted from ordinary taxation. The intention of the last clause will therefore be clearly understood if we bear in mind that not only each monastery and chapter, but each bishop and rector was in himself a corporation. The parochial estimate was of course founded on the supposition that the number of the parishes
was about 45,000, the figures in fact given by Higdon in his Polychronicon, and the enormous miscalculation here made in a statistical return of national importance, and apparently of such easy verification, must be taken as a warning to receive with caution all the recorded statistics of these times, and especially those having reference to the amount of the revenues of the Church. When steps were taken to give effect to the Order of Parliament, it was found that the
parishes were not one-fifth of the number supposed, and the tax had to be increased to 116 shillings per parish in order to produce the required sum. The Parliament held in 1376, after an unusual interval of three years, was characterized by such important, well-intentioned, and upon the whole beneficial legislation, that it afterwards went by the name of the Good Parliament. In order to understand its proceedings, it is necessary to bear in mind that the King, though but 64 years old,
was now prematurely senile and enfeebled. He had lost five years before his good, wise, and devoted Queen Philippa, and since her death had yielded himself more and more to the influence of Alice Perez, a married woman of great wit and beauty who had been lady of the bedchamber to the late queen. Through her means the Duke of Lancaster had contrived in the king's incapacity to attend to business, so completely to appropriate to himself the royal authority, that he exercised
an almost despotic influence in the administration and appointed all his own creatures to the great offices of state. In Parliament he led a strong party, whose avowed object was the aggrandizement of the aristocratical element and the curtailment of the privileges already won by the representatives of the people. To this latter, the popular party, which must also be called that of the opposition, the Prince of Wales lent his name and influence, and how powerful these were may be inferred from
the immediate reversal, on his death, of many of the salutary measures which the Commons had been enabled by his aid to pass. For the moment, the Duke's designs were checkmated. He feared, says the unknown author of a spirited, though one-sided contemporary chronicle, he feared the majesty of the prince, whom he knew to favor the knights. But when the prince died, he abused the king's simplicity, and the prince being dead, the effect of the parliament died
with him. Sir Peter de la Mer was chosen vaunt-parleur or speaker, for the commons were determined to have none of the creatures of the king or the duke, and he, trusting to God and standing together with his followers before the nobles, whereof the chief was John, Duke of Lancaster, whose doings were always contrary, declared that though the taxes had been heavy on the commons, now paying fifteenth, otherwhiles ninths and tenths, they would take in good part
nor grieve about it if it had been bestowed upon the king's wars, though scarcely prosperous. But it was evident that neither the king nor the realm had any profit thereby, and the commons therefore demanded an open account of income and expenditure. After this, continues the chronicler, the judges, not having wherewith to answer, held their peace. But when the duke heard of the proceedings of the commons, he thought at first to put them down by
bluster. What, cried he, do these base and ignoble knights attempt? Do they think they be kings or princes of the land? I deem they know not what power I be of. I will therefore in the morning appear unto them so glorious, and will show such power among them, and with such vigor will I terrify them, that neither they nor theirs shall dare henceforth to provoke me to wrath. But his private men reminded him that he knew what helpers these knights had to undershore them,
for that they have the favor and love of the lords, and especially the lord Edward Prince your brother, who giveth them his counsel and aid effectually. But what at last silenced him and brought him to reason was a warning of which he soon after felt the force, that the Londoners were against him and with the knights, and that if the commons were molested or interfered with, the people of the city would attempt all extremity against him and his friends.
End of Section 35
