session of such benefices be impeached upon their said possessions by such provisors; then the said provisors, their procurators, executors, and notaries, shall be attached by their body, and brought in to answer; and if they be convict, they shall abide in prison without being let to mainprise, or bail, or otherwise delivered, till that they have made fine and ransom to the king at his will, and satisfaction to the party that shall feel himself grieved. And nevertheless before that they be delivered, they shall make full renunciation, and find sufficient surety that they shall not attempt such things in time to come, nor sue any process by them, nor by other, against any man in the court of Rome, nor in any part elsewhere, for any such imprisonments or renunciations, nor any other thing depending of them.

72. The Statute of Treasons

(March, 1352. French text and translation, I S. R. 319.

not kuping faith with king.

2 Stubbs, 431.)

2. ITEM, whereas divers opinions have been before this time what case should be adjudged treason, and what not; the king, at the request of the lords and of the commons, hath made a declaration in the manner as hereafter followeth, that is to say; when a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the king, or of our lady his wife, or of their eldest son and heir; or a man do violate the king's wife, or the king's eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the king's eldest son and heir; or if a man do levy war against our lord the king in his realm, or be adherent to the king's enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm, or elsewhere, and thereof be proveably attainted of open deed by people of their condition: and if a man counterfeit the king's great or privy seal, or his money; and if a man bring false money into this realm, counterfeit to the money of England, as the money called lushburgh, or other, like to the said money of England, knowing the money to be false, to merchandise or make payment in deceit of our said lord the king and of his people; and if a man slay the chancellor, treasurer, or the king's justices of the one bench or the other, justices in eyre, or justices of assize, and all other justices assigned to hear and determine, being in their places, doing their offices: and it is to

this similim to Outh

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by Jolm only a only a few more avows, fules money && countefict so

be understood, that in the cases above rehearsed, that ought to be judged treason which extends to our lord the king, and his royal majesty and of such treason the forfeiture of the escheats pertaineth to our sovereign lord, as well of the lands and tenements holden of other, as of himself: and moreover there is another manner of treason, that is to say, when a servant slayeth his master, or a wife her husband, or when a man secular or religious slayeth his prelate, to whom he oweth faith and obedience; and such manner of treason giveth forfeiture of escheats to every lord of his own fee: and because that many other like cases of treason may happen in time to come, which a man cannot think or declare at this present time; it is accorded, that if any other case, supposed treason, which is not above specified, doth happen of new, before any justices, the justices shall tarry without any going to judgment of the treason, till the case be showed before the king in his parliament, and it be declared, whether it ought to be judged treason or else felony. And if perchance any man of this realm ride armed openly or secretly with men of arms against any other, to slay him, or rob him, or take him, or retain him till he hath made fine or ransom for to have his deliverance, it is not the mind of the king nor his council, that in such case it shall be judged treason, but shall be judged felony or trespass, according to the laws of the land of old time used, and according as the case requireth. * *

22. Item, because that some do purchase in the court of Rome provisions, to have abbeys and priories in England, in destruction of the realm, and of holy religion; it is accorded, that every man that purchaseth such provisions of abbeys or priories, that he and his executors and procurators, which do sue and make execution of such provisions, shall be out of the king's protection; and that a man may do with them as of enemies of our sovereign lord the king and his realm; and he that offendeth against such provisors in body or in goods, or in other possessions, shall be excused against all people, and shall never be impeached nor grieved for the same at any man's suit.

(September, 1353. French text and translation, I S. R. 329 2 Bland to

430, 3 Stubbs, 341.)

of 2

clunch courts at Rome.

1. FIRST, because it is showed to our lord the king, by the grievous and clamorous complaints of the great men and commons aforesaid, how that divers of the people be, and have been drawn out of the realm to answer of things, whereof the cognizance pertaineth to the king's court; and also that the judgments given in the same court be impeached in the court of another, in prejudice and disherison of our lord the king, and of his crown, and of all the people of his said realm, and to the undoing and destruction of the common law of the same realm at all times used: whereupon, good deliberation had with the great men and other of his said council, it is assented and accorded by our lord the king, and the great men and commons aforesaid, that all the people of the king's liegeance of what condition that they be, which shall draw any out of the realm in plea, whereof the cognizance pertaineth to the king's court, or of things whereof judgments be given in the king's court, or which do sue in the court of another, to defeat or impeach the judgments given in the king's court, shall have a day containing the space of two months, by warning to be made to them in the place where the possessions be, which be in debate, or otherwise where they have lands or other possessions, by the sheriffs, or others the king's ministers, to appear before the king and his council, or in his chancery, or before the king's justices in his places of the one bench or the other, or before other the king's justices which to the same shall be deputed, to answer in their proper persons to the king, of the contempt done in this behalf; and if they come not at the said day in their proper person to be at the law, they, their procurators, attorneys, executors, notaries, and maintainors, shall from that day forth be put out of the king's protection, and their lands, goods, and chattels forfeit to the king, and their bodies, wheresoever they may be found, shall be taken and imprisoned, and ransomed at the king's will; and upon the same a writ shall be made to take them by their bodies, and to seise their lands, goods, and possessions into the king's hands; and if it be returned that they be not found, they shall be put in exigent, and outlawed.

Provided always, that at what time they come before they be outlawed, and will yield them to the king's prison to be justified by the law, and to receive that which the court shall award in this behalf, that they shall be thereto received; the forfeiture of the lands, goods, and chattels abiding in their force, if they do not yield them within the said two months, as afore is said.

74. Ordinance of the Staples

(September, 1353. French text and translation, 1 S. R. 332.

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2 Stubbs, 431.)

DWARD by the grace of God king of England and of France, and lord of Ireland, to all our sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, ministers, and other our faithful people to whom these present letters shall come, Greeting: Whereas, good deliberation had with the prelates, dukes, earls, barons and knights of the counties, that is to say of every county, one for all the county, and of the commons of cities and boroughs of our realm of England, summoned to our great council, holden at Westminster the Monday next after the feast of Saint Matthew the apostle, the seven and twentieth year of our reign of England, and of France the fourteenth, for the damage which hath notoriously come as well to us and to the great men, as to our people of our realm of England, and of our lands of Wales and Ireland, because that the staple of wools, leather and woolfells of our said realm and lands have been holden out of our said realm and lands, and also for the great profits which should come to the said realm and lands if the staple were holden within the same, and not elsewhere; to the honor of God, and in relief of our realm and lands aforesaid and for to eschew the perils that may happen of the contrary in time to come, by the counsel and common assent of the said prelates, dukes, earls, and barons, knights and commons aforesaid, we have ordained and established the things underwritten, that is to say:

1. First, that the staple of wools, leather, woolfells, and lead, growing or coming forth within our said realm and lands, shall be perpetually holden at the places underwritten; that is to say, for England at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York, Lincoln, Norwich, Westminster, Canterbury, Chichester, Winchester, Exeter, and Bristol; for Wales, at Carmaerthen; and for Ireland, at Dublin,

Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda, and not elsewhere: and that all the said wools, as well old as new, woolfells, leather and lead, which shall be carried out of the said realm and lands, shall be first brought to the said staples, and there the said wool and lead, betwixt merchant and merchant, or merchant and others, shall be lawfully weighed by the standard; and that every sack and sarpler of the same wools so weighed, be sealed under the seal of the mayor of the staple; and that all the wools so weighed and sealed at the staple of York, Lincoln, Norwich, Westminster, Canterbury, and Winchester, and also leather, woolfells, and lead which shall come there, the customs of the staple thereof paid, shall be witnessed by bill, sealed with the seal of the mayor of the staple, and brought to the ports underwritten, that is to say; from York to Hull, from Lincoln to Saint Botolf, from Norwich to Great Yarmouth, from Westminster to London, from Canterbury to Sandwich, and from Winchester to Southampton; and there the said wools and lead shall be another time weighed by our customers assigned in the same ports; and all the wool and lead brought to the said ports of Newcastle, Chichester, Exeter, Bristol, Carmaerthen, Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda, where the other staples be holden, shall be but once weighed by the standard betwixt merchant and merchant, or merchant and other, in presence of our customers there; and an indenture shall be made betwixt the mayor of the staple being in the port of the sea, and our customers there, of all the wools and lead so weighed, and also of all the leather and woolfells which shall come to the said staples to pass there: and the same wools and lead, and also the leather and woolfells customed and cocketed, and the customs thereof duly paid to our said customers in all these said ports, that is to say, of denizens for the time that they have passed, half a mark of a sack of wool, half a mark of three hundred woolfells, a mark of a last of leather, and of aliens ten shillings of a sack of wool, ten shillings of three hundred woolfells, and twenty shillings of a last of leather, and three pence of every twenty shillings of lead, then the said merchandises shall be carried by merchants strangers which have bought the same, and not by Englishmen, Welshmen, nor Irishmen, to the parts beyond the sea out of the said realm and lands, to what parts it shall please the said merchants strangers: and that the said mayor and customers shall delay no man willingly for gain; nor for such cause, nor in other manner, shall any take of any person to do that which pertaineth to their office, upon pain of imprisonment, and to pay the party the double of that which they have so taken, and also of that which