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To
The King's Most Excellent Majesty:
OOOO
Humbly show unto our Sovereign Lord the King, the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, and Commons in Parliament assembled, that whereas it is
declared and enacted by a statute made in the time of the reign of
King Edward the First, commonly called Statutum de Tellagio non
concedendo, [1] that no
tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the King or his heirs in
this realm, without the goodwill and assent of the Archbishops,
Bishops, Earls, Barons, Knights, Burgesses, and other the freemen of
the commonalty of this realm; and by authority of parliament holden in
the five and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the Third, it
is declared and enacted, that from thenceforth no person should be
compelled to make any loans to the King against his will, because such
loans were against reason and the franchise of the land; and by other
laws of this realm it is provided, that none should be charged by any
charge or imposition called a Benevolence, nor by such like charge, by
which statutes before-mentioned, and other the good laws and statutes
of this realm, your subjects have inherited this freedom, that they
should not be compelled to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or
other like charge not set by common consent, in Parliament:
OOOOYet nevertheless of late divers
commissions directed to sundry Commissioners in several counties, with
instructions, have issued; by means whereof your people have been in
divers places assembled, and required to lend certain sums of money
unto your Majesty, and many of them, upon their refusal so to do, have
had an oath administered unto them not warrantable by the laws or
statutes of this realm, and have been constrained to become bound and
make appearance and give utterance before your Privy Council and in
other places, and others of them have been therefore imprisoned,
confined, and sundry other ways molested and disquieted; and divers
other charges have been laid and levied upon your people in several
counties by Lord Lieutenants, Deputy Lieutenants, Commissioners for
Musters, Justices of Peace and others, by command or direction from
your Majesty, or your Privy Council, against the laws and free custom
of the realm:
OOOOAnd where also by the statute called
'The Great Charter of the Liberties of England,' it is declared and
enacted, that no freeman may be taken or imprisoned or be disseized of
his freehold or liberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or
exiled, or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of his
peers, or by the law of the land:
OOOO And in the eight and twentieth year
of the reign of King Edward the Third, it was declared and enacted by
authority of Parliament, that no man, of what estate or condition that
he be, should be put out of his lands or tenements, nor taken, nor
imprisoned, nor disinherited nor put to death without being brought to
answer by due process of law:
OOOONevertheless, against the tenor of
the said statutes, and other the good laws and statutes of your realm
to that end provided, divers of your subjects have of late been
imprisoned without any cause showed; and when for their deliverance
they were brought before your Justices by your Majesty's writs of
Habeas Corpus, there to undergo and receive as the Court should order,
and their keepers commanded to certify the causes of their detainer,
no cause was certified, but that they were detained by your Majesty's
special command, signified by the Lords of your Privy Council, and yet
were returned back to several prisons, without being charged with
anything to which they might make answer according to the law:
OOOOAnd whereas of late great companies
of soldiers and mariners have been dispersed into divers counties of
the realm, and the inhabitants against their wills have been compelled
to receive them into their houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn
against the laws and customs of this realm, and to the great grievance
and vexation of the people:
OOOOAnd whereas also by authority of
Parliament, in the five and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward
the Third, it is declared and enacted, that no man shall be forejudged
of life or limb against the form of the Great Charter and the law of
the land; and by the said Great Charter and other the laws and
statutes of this your realm, no man ought to be adjudged to death but
by the laws established in this your realm, either by the customs of
the same realm, or by Acts of Parliament: and whereas no offender of
what kind soever is exempted from the proceedings to be used, and
punishments to be inflicted by the laws and statutes of this your
realm; nevertheless of late time divers commissions under your
Majesty's Great Seal have issued forth, by which certain persons have
been assigned and appointed Commissioners with power and authority to
proceed within the land, according to the justice of martial law,
against such soldiers or mariners, or other dissolute persons joining
with them, as should commit any murder, robbery, felony, mutiny, or
other outrage or misdemeanour whatsoever, and by such summary course
and order as is agreeable to martial law, and is used in armies in
time of war, to proceed to the trial and condemnation of such
offenders, and them to cause to be executed and put to death according
to the law martial:
OOOOBy pretext whereof some of your
Majesty's subjects have been by some of the said Commissioners put to
death, when and where, if by the laws and statutes of the land they
had deserved death, by the same laws and statutes also they might, and
by no other ought to have been judged and executed:
OOOOAnd also sundry grievous offenders,
by colour thereof claiming an exemption, have escaped the punishments
due to them by the laws and statutes of this your realm, by reason
that divers of your officers and ministers of justice have unjustly
refused, or forborne to proceed against such offenders according to
the same laws and statutes, upon pretense that the said offenders were
punishable only by martial law, and by authority of such commissions
as aforesaid, which commissions, and all other of like nature, are
wholly and directly contrary to the said laws and statutes of this
your realm:
OOOOThey do therefore humbly pray your
Most Excellent Majesty, that no man hereafter be compelled to make or
yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without
common consent by Act of Parliament; and that none be called to make
answer, or take such oath, or to give attendance, or be confined, or
otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same or for refusal
thereof; and that no freeman, in any such manner as is before
mentioned, be imprisoned or detained; and that your Majesty would be
pleased to remove the said soldiers and mariners, and that your people
may not be so burdened in time to come; and that the aforesaid
commissions, for proceeding by martial law, may be revoked and
annulled; and that hereafter no commissions of like nature may issue
forth to any person or persons whatsoever to be executed as aforesaid,
lest by colour of them any of your Majesty's subjects be destroyed or
put to death contrary to the laws and franchise of the land:
OOOOAll which they most humbly pray of
your Most Excellent Majesty as their rights and liberties, according
to the laws and statutes of this realm; and that your Majesty would
also vouchsafe to declare, that the awards, doings, and proceedings,
to the prejudice of your people in any of the premises, shall not be
drawn hereafter into consequence or example; and that your Majesty
would be also graciously pleased, for the further comfort and safety
of your people, to declare your royal will and pleasure, that in the
things aforesaid all your officers and ministers shall serve you
according to the laws and statutes of this realm, as they tender the
honour of your Majesty, and the prosperity of this Kingdom.
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