flourish in the reign of Queen Victoria, may be permitted to express a confident hope that they will ever continue, as now, to support those liberal principles which, in the time of the Plantagenets, were so powerfully inculcated by their illus

trious ancestor.

We must here take a short review of the law under Henry VI.; for although after languishing ten years as a prisoner in the Tower, he was again, for a short time, placed as a puppet on the throne, we may consider that his reign really closed when, upon the military disasters of his party, his queen and son went into exile, all his supporters were either slain or submitted, and a rival sovereign was proclaimed and recognised.

CHAP.

XXII.

End of the

reign of

Henry VI.

against a

consent of the reign

After the marriage of the King's mother, Catherine of Law France, with a Welsh gentleman, Owen ap Tudor, whereby Queen the royal family was supposed to be much disparaged, a Dowager marrying statute was passed* enacting, that to marry a Queen Dowager without the without the licence of the King, should be an offence punishable by forfeiture of lands and goods. Some doubted whether ing sovethis statute had the full force of law, because the prelates, reign. asserting a doctrine still cherished by some of their successors, that "it belongs to the Church alone to regulate all matters respecting marriage," assented to it "only as far forth as the same swerved not from the law of God and of the Church, and so as the same imported no deadly sin;" but Lord Coke clearly holds it to be an act of parliament †, and it continues law to the present day.‡

The only other statute of permanent importance, passed under Henry VI., was that for regulating the qualification of the electors of knights of the shire.§

The Chancellors of this reign, particularly Cardinal Beau- Equitable fort, the Earl of Salisbury, Archbishop Bourchier, and Bishop of Chanjurisdiction Waynflete, were men of great note, and had much influence cery during upon the historical events of their age. Under them, assisted Hen. VI. by John Frank, Master of the Rolls, the Court of Chancery

A vain attempt was made (as was supposed by the clergy) to do away with it by cutting off and stealing the membrane of the parliament roll on which it was inscribed. See 5 Ling. 105.

§ 8 Hen. 6. c. 7.

reign of

СНАР.
XXII.

Rude state

grew into new consideration.
The doctrine of uses was
now established, and it was determined that they might be
enforced without going to parliament. So low down as
the 7th of Henry VI., this kind of property was so little re-
garded, that we find it stated by one of the judges as "a thing
not allowed by law, and entirely void, if a man make a feoff-
ment with a proviso that he himself should take the profits*;
but in the 37th year of the same reign, in the time of Lord
Chancellor Waynflete, a feoffor "to such uses as he should
direct," having sold the land and directed the feoffees to
convey to the purchaser, it was agreed by all the judges in
the Exchequer, when consulted upon the subject, that the
intention of the feoffor being declared in writing, the feoffees
were bound to fulfil it; and they intimated an opinion, that
where a testator devised that his feoffees should make an estate
for life to one, remainder to another, the remainder-man
should have a remedy in Chancery, to compel a conveyance
to himself, even during the continuance of the life interest.†
Very soon after, the distinction between the legal and
equitable estate was fully settled on the principles, and in the
language which ever since have been applied to it.‡

On other points, Equity remained rather in a rude plight. of Equity. For example, in a subsequent case which came before Lord

Chancellor Waynflete, the plaintiff having given a bond in payment of certain debts which he had purchased, filed his bill to be relieved from it, on the ground that there was no consideration for the bond, as he could not maintain an action to recover the debts in his own name. This case being adjourned into the Exchequer Chamber, the Judges, instead of suggesting that an action might be brought for the benefit of the purchaser, in the name of the original creditor, held, that the bond was without consideration, and advised a decree that it should be cancelled, which the Chancellor pronounced. An action was, nevertheless, brought upon the bond in the Common Pleas, which prevailed, that Court holding that the only power the Chancellor had of enforcing his decrees, was by inflicting imprisonment on the contumacious party, who † Bro. Ab. Garde, 5.

*Y. B. 7 Hen. 6. 436.
See Y. B. 4 Ed. 4. 3.

XXII.

might still prosecute his legal right in a court of law, notwith- CHAP. standing the determination in Chancery, that the bond was unconscionable. To remedy this defect, injunctions were speedily introduced, raising a warfare between the two sides. of Westminster Hall, which was not allayed till after the famous battle between Lord Coke and Lord Ellesmere, in the reign of James I. Bills were now filed for perpetuation of testimony, the examination being taken by commissioners, and certified into Chancery. Possession was quieted by the authority of the Court, and its jurisdiction was greatly extended for the purpose of affording relief against fraud, deceit, and force.

*Y. B. 36 Hen. 6. 13.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHAP.
XXIII.

March 5. 1461. George Neville again Chancellor.

Nov. 1461.
A parlia-

ment.

Chancel

CHANCELLORS IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD IV.

EDWARD IV. having been proclaimed king on the 5th of March, 1461, on the 10th of the same month George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, was declared Chancellor.* He had been an active leader in the tumultuary proceedings which took place in the metropolis during the late crisis. Without calling a parliament, first by a great public meeting in St. John's Fields, and then by an assemblage of bishops, peers, and other persons of distinction at Baynard's Castle, he had contrived to give a semblance of national consent to the change of dynasty.

The new King, after the decisive battle of Towton, in which 36,000 Englishmen were computed to have fallen, but which firmly established his throne, having leisure to hold a parliament, it met at Westminster in November, and was opened in a notable oration by Lord Chancellor Neville, who took for his theme " Bonas facite vias;" but we are not inlor's speech formed whether he exhorted them to make provision for the on opening repair of the highways, greatly neglected during the civil war, or to find out ways and means to restore the dilapidated finances of the country, or what other topics he dwelt upon. After a Speaker had been chosen by the Commons, who addressed the King, commending him for his extraordinary courage and conduct against his enemies, the Chancellor read a long declaration of the King's title to the crown, to which was added a recapitulation of the tyran

session.

Fœd. xi. 473. A difficulty arose about having a Great Seal to deliver to him. At the commencement of a new reign, the Great Seal of the preceding Sovereign is used for a time, but that of Henry VI. was not forthcoming, and he had been declared an usurper. A new Great Seal, with the effigies of Edward IV., was speedily manufactured, though in a rude fashion. 1 Hale's Pleas of the Crown, 177.

nous reign of Henry IV., and his heinous murdering of СНАР. Richard II. *

The required acts of attainder and restitution being passed against Lancastrians and in favour of Yorkists, the King, according to modern fashion, closed the session with a gracious speech, delivered by himself from the throne.t After his Majesty had ended his speech, the record tells us that "the Lord Chancellor stood up and declared, that since the whole business of this parliament was not yet concluded, and the approaching festival of Christmas would obstruct it, he therefore, by the King's command, prorogued the parliament to the 6th of May next ensuing. At the same time he told them of certain proclamations which the King had issued against badges, liveries, robberies, and murders, and which "the Bishops, Lords, and Commons promised to obey." +

XXIII.

shoes.

Neville was made Archbishop of York, and continued to Acts hold the office of Chancellor till the 8th of June, 1467; but against wearing I do not find any transaction of much consequence in which piked he was afterwards engaged. The parliaments called were chiefly employed in reforming the extravagant fashion prevailing among the people of adorning their feet by wearing pikes to their shoes, so long as to encumber them in their walking, unless tied up to the knee with chains of gold, silver, or silk. There was a loud outcry against these enormities, and this appears to have operated as a diversion in favour of the Court of Chancery, which now enjoyed a long respite from parliamentary attack. Several statutes were passed, regulating the length of pikes of shoes, under very severe penalties; but the fame of reformers is generally short-lived, and I cannot affirm that the Lord Chancellor gained any distinction by bringing forward or supporting these measures.

In 1463 the pleasing and novel task was assigned to Lord

* 1 Parl. Hist. 419.

A little specimen of the language and style may be interesting. "James Stranways and ye that be comyn for the common of this my lond, for the true hertes and tender consideracions that ye have had unto the coronne of this reame, the which from us have been long time withholde.”—1 Parl. Hist. 419. 1 Parl. Hist. 422.