these and all things involved in this business in the presence of the aforesaid estates and by us, in the representation, name and authority committed to us in the matter, for abundant reason and as a precaution for the rule and government of the said realms and lordship and the rights pertaining to them, we pronounce, decree, and declare that Richard himself has been and is useless, incapable, utterly insufficient and unworthy; and because of the circumstances stated above and in consequence of them we pronounce, decree and declare him worthy to be deposed from all royal dignity and honor, if any dignity and honor of this sort remain to him, and by a like precaution, we depose him by our definite sentence in all and each of these writings. To the lords, archbishops, bishops and prelates, dukes, marquisses, earls, knights, vassals and vavassors, and other men of the said realms and lordship, and of other places subject to the said realms and lordship, their subjects and liegemen whomsoever, it is expressly forbidden that any one of them should in any way submit or attend to the said Richard as if he were king or lord of the aforesaid realms and lordship. 53. Moreover in addition the said estates wishing that nothing should be lacking which can be and ought to be required concerning these circumstances set down above, after having considered separately, appointed the same persons formerly nominated commissioners to be their procurators jointly and separately, to bear and to restore to the said king Richard the homage and fealty formerly rendered to him and to announce all the circumstances touching this deposition and renunciation, if it should be necessary. And immediately, as it was evident from the circumstances set down above and their occasion that the realm of England with its appurtenances was vacant, the aforesaid Henry duke of Lancaster rising from his place, and standing erect so that he might be able to be well seen by the people and protecting himself humbly with the sign of the cross on his forehead and breast, after first calling upon the name of Christ, claimed the aforesaid English realm inasmuch as it was vacant, together with the crown and all its parts and appurtenances in his mother tongue in this form of words: In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge this realm of England and the crown with all the members and the appurtenances, as I that am descended by right line of the blood coming from the good lord king Henry III, and through that right, that God of his grace hath sent me with help of my kin and of my friends to recover it: the which realm was in point to be undone for default of governance 54. After the lord spiritual and temporal and all the estates 104. HE Act for the Security of the Subject and in Repeal of the Acts of the Parliament of Shrewsbury after Richard was deposed. (October, 1399. French text and translation, 2 S. R. 111. 3 Stubbs, 19.) JENRY, by the grace of God, king of England, and of France, and lord of Ireland, to the laud and honor of God, and reverence of Holy Church, for to nourish unity, peace, and concord in all parts within the realm of England, and for the redress and recovery of the same realm, which now of late hath been dangerously put to great ruin, mischief, and desolation; of the assent of the prelates, dukes, earls, and barons, and at the instance and special request of the commons of the same realm, assembled at his parliament holden at Westminster in the feast of St. Faith the Virgin, the first year of his reign, hath caused to be ordained, and established certain ordinances and statutes in form as hereafter followeth. 1. First, that Holy Church have and enjoy all her rights, liberties, and franchises, entirely and without inblemishing: and that the great charter, and the charter of the forest, and other good ordinances and statutes made in the time of his noble progenitors, and not repealed, be firmly holden and kept in all points: and that the peace within this realm be holden and kept, so that all his lawful liege people and subjects may from henceforth safely and peaceably go, come, and dwell, according to the laws and usages of the same realm; and that good justice and even right be done to every person. 2. Item, that no lord spiritual nor temporal nor other person, of what estate or condition that he be, which came with our sovereign lord the king that now is into the realm of England, nor none other persons, whatsoever they be, then dwelling within the same realm, and which came to the king in aid of him to pursue them that were against the good intent of our sovereign lord the king and the common profit of the realm, in which pursuit Richard late king of England the second after the conquest was pursued, taken, and put in ward, and yet remaineth in ward, be impeached, grieved nor vexed, in person nor in goods, in the king's court nor in the court of none other for the pursuit of the said king, taking and withholding of his body, nor for the pursuit of any other, taking of persons and chattels or of the death of a man, or any other thing done in the said pursuit, from the day that the said king that now is arrived, till the day of the coronation of our said sovereign lord king Henry. And the intent of the king is not that offenders, which committed trespasses or other offences out of the said pursuit without special warrant shall be aided or have any advantage of this statute; but that they be thereof answerable at the common law. 3. Item, whereas the Monday next after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the xxi year of the reign of the said late King Richard, a parliament was summoned and holden at Westminster, and from thence adjourned to Shrewsbury, at which town a certain power was committed by authority of the parliament, to certain persons to proceed upon certain articles and matters comprised in the roll of the parliament thereof made, as by the same roll may appear, in which parliament, and also by authority foresaid, divers statutes, judgments, ordinances, and stablishments were made, ordained, and given erroneously and right sorrowfully; in great disherison and final destruction and undoing of many honorable lords and other liege people of the realm and of their heirs forever: our sovereign lord the king, considering the great mischiefs aforesaid, by the advice and assent of all the lords spiritual and temporal, and of all the commonalty, hath judged the said parliament, holden the said xxi year, and the authority thereof given, as afore is said, with all the circumstances and dependents thereupon to be of no force nor value and that the same parliament, with the authority afore said, and all the circumstances and dependents thereupon, be wholly reversed, revoked, voided, undone, repealed, and annulled forever. 105. Haxey's Case (1399. French original, 3 R. P. 434, No. 104. Translation by Editors. 2 Stubbs, 516, 624.) ITE TEM, as at the parliament held at Westminster on the day of St. Vincent, in the twentieth year of King Richard, for the honor and profit of the said king and all the realm. Thomas Haxey, clerk, presented a bill to the commons of the said parliament; for which bill, by the wish of the said king, the said Thomas was adjudged a traitor, and forfeited all that he had, contrary to the right and the custom which had been used before in parliament, in destruction of the customs of the commons. May it please our very gracious lord the king in this present parliament to amend that judgment and make it void as erroneous; and to reinstate the said Thomas fully in his rank, estate, goods, and chattels, ferms, annuities, pensions, lands, tenements, rents, office, advowsons, and possessions whatsoever with their appurtenances and that he be able to enter upon the aforesaid ferms, annuities, lands, tenements, rents, office, advowsons, and possessions and to hold them as he held them the day of the drawing up of the said bill: even the judgment or any declaration by this cause, gift, or grant of these goods, chattels, ferms, annuities, pensions, lands, tenements, rents, offices, advowsons, and possessions, or of any of them, to any other person made in any way since the said judgment notwithstanding. As well in fulfillment of the right as for the saving of the liberties of the said commons. The king wills, by the advice and assent of all the lords spiritual and temporal, that the judgment rendered against Thomas Haxey, clerk, in the parliament held at Westminster in the twentieth year of the late king Richard, be wholly annulled, reversed, repealed and made void and held of no force or effect; and that the said Thomas be reinstated in his name and reputation, and made and held an able person such as he was before the said judgment was rendered as in the record made thereof and enrolled before in this roll of parliament as appears more at length. (1401. Latin text and translation, 2 S. R. 125. 3 Stubbs, 33, 369.) 15. ITEM, whereas it is showed to our sovereign lord the king on the behalf of the prelates and clergy of his realm of England in this present parliament, that although the catholic faith builded upon Christ, and by his apostles and the holy church sufficiently determined, declared, and approved, hath been hitherto by good and holy and most noble progenitors and predecessors of our sovereign lord the king in the said realm amongst all the realms of the world, most devoutly observed, and the church of England by his said most noble progenitors and ancestors, to the honor of God and of the whole realm aforesaid, laudably endowed, and in her rights and liberties sustained, without that that the same faith or the said church was hurt or grievously oppressed, or else perturbed by any perverse doctrine or wicked heretical or erroneous opinions; yet nevertheless divers false and perverse people of a certain new sect, of the said faith, of the sacraments of the church, and the authority of the same damnably thinking, and against the law of God and of the church usurping the office of preaching, do perversely and maliciously in divers places within the said realm under the color of dissembled holiness, preach and teach these days openly and privily divers new doctrines, and wicked heretical and erroneous opinions, contrary to the same faith and blessed determinations of the holy church; and of such sect and wicked doctrine and opinions, they make unlawful conventicles and confederacies, they hold and exercise schools, they make and write books, they do wickedly instruct and inform people, and as much as they may excite and stir them to sedition and insurrection, and maketh great strife and division among the people, and other enormities horrible to be heard daily do perpetrate and commit, in subversion of the said catholic faith and doctrine of the holy church, in diminution of divine worship, and also in destruction of the estates, rights and liberties of the said church of England; by which sect and wicked and false preachings, doctrines, and opinions of the said false and perverse people, not only most greatest peril of the souls, but also many more other hurts, slanders, and perils, which God prohibit, might come to this realm, unless it be the more plentifully and speedily holpen by the |