CHAP. Character of the Chancel lors of The qualifications of the Chancellor now became of great importance to the due administration of justice, not only from the increase of his separate jurisdiction, but from the practice for the common-law judges, when any question of difficulty arose before them in their several courts, to take Edw. III. the advice of Parliament upon it before giving judgment. In a case which occurred in the King's Bench, in the 39th of Edward III., Thorpe, the Chief Justice, says, "Go to the Parliament, and as they will have us do we will, and otherwise not." The following year Thorpe himself, accompanied by Sir Hugh Green, a brother judge, went to the House of Lords, where there were assembled twenty-four bishops, earls, and barons, and asked them, as they had lately passed a statute of jeofails, what they intended thereby. Such questions, which were frequent in this reign, must have been answered by the Chancellor.* Origin of parlia mentary ments. In the forty-second year of this reign, while William of Wickham was Chancellor, occurred the first instance of a impeach- parliamentary impeachment. Criminal jurisdiction had been before exercised by the Lords, but not on the prosecution of the Commons. Sir John Lee was now impeached by the Lower House for malpractices while steward of the household, and the punishment not extending to life or member, the Chancellor, though a priest, was not disqualified from presiding. Before the close of the reign the Commons preferred impeachments against many delinquents for political and other offences, and the practice of impeachment, according to the present forms of proceeding, was fully established. Justices of In this reign the Chancellor acquired that most important and delicate function of appointing Justices of the Peace, a magistracy peculiar to the British Isles, the judges having a most extensive criminal jurisdiction, being generally with Geoffrey de Lacer complains of a judgment at law. Let the petition be referred to the Chancery, and there let the evidence which the said Geoffrey says he hath to manifest the loss of the aforesaid commodities be received, and that justice was not done him in his suit for recovery of losses in these parts, and therefore let speedy remedy be ordained him according to the law used in such cases.-Temp. Ed. 3. ii. 437. Y. B. 39 Ed. 3. Y. B. 40 Ed. 3. If the Lords were still liable to be so interrogated, they would not unfrequently be puzzled, and the revival of the practice might be a check to hasty legislation. out legal education, and serving without any remuneration except the power and consequence which they derive from their office. The Chancellors in the latter part of this reign, following the example of the distinguished philobiblist De Bury, prided themselves on their attainments in literature, and their protection of literary men, and they must have had a powerful influence in directing the pursuits and developing the genius of Chaucer and Gower. They encouraged the use of the English language, not only by the statute against the use of French in the courts of law, but by their own example on the most public occasions. In the 36 Edward III. we find the earliest record of the use of English in any parliamentary proceeding. The roll of that year is found in French, as usual, but it expressly states that the causes of summoning parliament were declared "en Englois." The precedent then set by Lord Chancellor Edington was followed in the two succeeding years by Lord Chancellor Langham†, and from this time viva voce proceedings in parliament were generally in English, with the exception of giving the royal assent to bills, although the entry of some of these proceedings in the reign of Queen Victoria is still in Norman French. + CHAP. XV. Rot. Parl. 36 Ed. 3. 38 Ed. 3. Ante, p. 255. CHAPTER XVI. CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS OF THE GREAT SEAL FROM THE CHAP. June 22. 1377. RICHARD was a boy, only eleven years old, when, on the death of his grandfather, he was proclaimed King. The Keepers of the Great Seal, who had been appointed during the absence of the Chancellor abroad, nevertheless surrendered it into the royal stripling's own hand when he was seated on the throne, and surrounded by his nobility and great officers of state. The Duke of Lancaster, acting as Regent, although formally no Regent or Protector had been appointed, then took it from him, and handed it to Nicholas Bonde, a knight of the King's chamber, for safe custody. De Houghton, the Bishop of St. David's, returned to England Houghton in a few days after, and on his arrival at Westminster the Chancellor. King, by his uncle's direction, delivered the Great Seal to him, and he again took the oath of office as Chancellor.* There was no intention of continuing him in the office beyond the time when a satisfactory arrangement could be made for the appointment of a successor. De continues His speech to parlia. ment. Richard being crowned on the 4th of August, writs were issued for the calling of a parliament to meet fifteen days after the feast of St. Michael. On the appointed day, the cause of summons was declared by the Chancellor in a speech founded on the text, "Rex tuus venit tibi." The language introduced at the Conquest was still used on most public occasions, and he thus began: "Seigneurs et Sires, ces paroles que j'ay dit, sont tant a dire en Franceys, Vostre Roy vient a toy." He then divided the subject into three parts, showing the causes of joy for the King's accession, with his usual quaintness. But he raised a great laugh by an unlucky † Rolls of Parl. iii. 3. Rot. Cl. 1 Ric. 2. m. 46. quotation from scripture - observing that "a man's heart leaps for joy when he hears good tidings, like Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist :- Et exultavit infans in utero ejus."* This harangue does not seem to have given perfect satisfaction; for the next day Sir Richard Scrope, steward of the King's household, who was rapidly rising into favour, made another speech on behalf of the king, asking the Commons "to advise him which way his and the kingdom's enemies might be resisted, and how the expences of such resistance were to be borne with the greatest ease to the people, and profit and honour to the kingdom ?” СНАР. XVI. The Commons having, for the first time, chosen a Speaker, Proceedset about reforming the abuses of the state in good earnest, Commons. ings of and tried to provide for the proper conduct of the government during the King's minority. They obtained the banishment of Alice Pierce, and the removal of the late King's evil councillors. They then proposed, "that, till the King was of age, the Chancellor, High Treasurer, Chief Justice of one bench, and the other the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and other officers, might be made by parliament." This the Lords modified to their own aggrandisement by an amendment," that while the King was under age, the Councillors, Chancellor, Steward of the Household, and Chamberlain, should be chosen by the Upper House, and that the King should make the other officers with the assent of his Council." The Commons acquiesced in this arrangement. + Gloucester. At the parliament which met in the Abbey of Gloucester Parliaon the 20th of October, 1378, the young King being seated ment at on the throne, attended by his three uncles, Lancaster, Cambridge, and Buckingham, -the Lord Chancellor de Houghton, in a long speech, explained to the Lords and Commons the causes of their being summoned, entering with some prolixity into the subsisting relations of England with France and Scotland. But he gave no satisfaction; and Sir Richard le Scrope the next morning again addressed the two Houses · 1 Parl. Hist. 158. + Ibid. 162. СНАР. on the same topics, and by way of urging a supply, pointed out the enormous expence which the crown incurred in keepA.D. 1378. ing up garrisons in Brest, Cherbourg, Calais, Bourdeaux, and Bayonne. While the parliament sat, which was only a few days, Sir Richard le Scrope seems to have taken the entire lead, and by his good management the desired subsidy was voted.* Sir RICH ARD LE SCROPE, On the 28th of October, as a reward for his services, he was actually made Lord Chancellor on the resignation of the Chancellor. Bishop of St. David's, who seems to have been much hurt at Death of the disrespectful treatment he had experienced. † The ExHoughton. chancellor retired to his see, and there peaceably ended his Rise of Richard le Scrope. days at a distance from the strife which marked this unhappy reign. He survived till April 1389. RICHARD LE SCROPE, the new Chancellor, was the third son of Sir Henry le Scrope, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the reign of Edward II. and Edward III., and was born in the year 1328. Instead of being trained in the university, the inns of court, and Westminster Hall, he was a soldier from his early youth, and served during the whole course of the late wars in France. He was at the battle of Cressy in 1346, and serving under Lord Percy, he was knighted on the field for his gallantry in the battle of Durham, fought the same year, where the Scots were signally defeated. In the following year he served at the siege of Calais, where he was obliged to maintain his right to his crest-a crab issuing from a ducal coronet. He was in the memorable sea-fight off Winchelsea in August, 1350, when Edward III. and the Black Prince defeated a greatly superior fleet under Don Carlos de la Cerda. He was with Edward III. at the rescue of Berwick in 1356. In October, 1359, he served under John of Gaunt in the army which invaded France, and in the April following approached close to the walls of Paris, where he was engaged against the family of Grosvenor in another heraldic dispute about his right to certain bearings in his shield. In the parliament The Close Roll contains a very minute account of this transfer of the Great Seal in the house of the Abbot of Gloucester.—2 R. 2. m. 25. † 1 Parl. Hist. 163. |