desired by the petition, we do think, That your Majesty may by law and without inconvenience appoint an officer that shall have the ingrossing of the transcripts of all wills to be sealed with the seal of either of the Prerogative Courts which shall be proved in communi formá; and likewise of all inventories to be exhibited in the same courts. We see it necessary that all wills which are not judicially controverted be ingrossed before the probate. Yet, as the law now stands, no officer of those courts can lawfully take any fee or reward for ingrossing the said wills and inventories, the statute of the 21st of King Henry the 8th restraining them. Wherefore we hold it much more convenient that it should be done by a lawful officer to be appointed by your Majesty, than in a course not warrantable by law. Yet our humble opinion and advice is, that good consideration be had in passing this book, as well touching a moderate proportion of fees to be allowed for the pains and travel of the officer, as for the expedition of the suitor, in such sort that the subject may find himself in better case than he is now, and not in worse.1 But howsoever we conceive this may be convenient in the two courts of prerogative, where there is much business; yet in the ordinary course of the Bishops diocesans, we hold the same will be inconvenient, in regard of the small employment.2 Your Majesty's most faithful, and obedient servants, FR. VERULAM, Canc. HENRY MONTAGU. 15 Nov. 1620. Sir Robert Anstruther returning from Denmark about this time brought Bacon another letter from King Christian, to which he returned the following answer : 1 Originally "that no just grievance of the subject may thereby be occasioned.' 2 The last paragraph is added in Meautys's hand. SERENISSIMO AC POTENTISSIMO REGI AC DOMINO, DOMINO CHRISTIANO QUARTO, DEI GRATIA DANIE, NORVEGIE, VANDALORUM, GOTHORUMQUE, ETC., REGI, DOMINO SUO CLEMENTISSIMO. 1 Accepi literas Majestatis Vestræ per manus Domini Rob. Amstrudder, affinis mei, viri servitio Majestatis Suæ imprimis dediti; quarum nomine humillimas gratias ago Serenitati Suæ, quod me honorificâ et benignâ literarum suarum compellatione indies magis obligatum velit; summâ autem afficiebar voluptate quod in illis literis animum Serenitatis Sua pium ac vere regium perspexerim. Cum enim bellicâ virtute floreat, pacis tamen cultorem se profitetur; rursus sub ipsâ pacis mentione veræ Religionis patrocinium anteponit. Itaque opto ut ex votis suis quæ cum nostris sunt conjunctissima, omnia fæliciter succedant. Superest ut humillime exosculer manus Majestatis Vestræ, eique omnia prospera perpetuo comprecer. Majestatis Vestræ omni observantia et devotione servus addictissimus. Ex Edibus Eboracensibus, FR. VERULAM, Canc. TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.2 Our very good Lord, We thought it our duty to impart to his Majesty by your Lordship one particular of Parliament business, which we hold it our part to relate, though it be too high for us to give our opinion of it. The officers that make out the writs of Parliament addressed themselves to me the Chancellor to know, whether they should 16 Archaeologea,' vol. xli. "I have received your Majesty's letters by the hands of Sir Robert Anstruther, my kinsman, a man especially devoted to your service, and I most humbly thank your Serenity for vouchsafing by these your honourable and gracious communica tions to make me daily more and more obliged; but that which gives me the highest pleasure is to see the pious and truly royal mind which appears in those letters; wherein your Serenity though eminent in warlike virtue yet professes devotion to peace and again along with the mention of peace prefers before it the protection of true Religion. May all things therefore succeed happily according to your wishes, which are most closely allied with ours. It remains for me humbly to kiss your Majesty's hands and pray that in all things you may always prosper." 2 Stephens's second collection, p. 129. From the original. make such a writ of summons to the Prince, giving me to understand that there were some precedents of it; which I the Chancellor communicated with the rest of the committees for Parliament business; in whose assistance I find so much strength that I am not willing to do any thing without them: Whereupon we (according to his Majesty's prudent and constant rule for observing in what reigns the precedents were) upon diligent search have found as followeth. That King Edward I. called his eldest son Prince Edward to his Parliament in the thirtieth year of his reign, the Prince then being about the age of eighteen years; and to another Parliament in the four and thirtieth year of his reign. Edward III. called the Black Prince his eldest son to his Parliament in the five and twentieth, eight and twentieth, and two and fortieth years of his reign. Henry IV. called Prince Henry to his Parliaments in the first, third, eighth, and eleventh years of his reign, the Prince being under age in the three first Parliaments, and we find in particular that the eighth year the Prince sat in the Upper-House in days of business and recommended a bill to the Lords. King Edward IV. called Prince Edward his son to his Parliament, in anno 22 of his reign, being within age. King Henry VII. called Prince Arthur to his Parliament in the seventh year of his reign, being within age. Of King Edward VI. we find nothing, his years were tender, and he was not created Prince of Wales. And for Prince Henry, he was created Prince of Wales during the last Parliament at which he lived. We have thought it our duty to relate to his Majesty what we have found, and withal that the writs of summons to the Prince are not much differing from the writs to the Peers; for they run in fide et ligeancia, and sometime in fide et homagio in quibus nobis tenemini, and after, consilium nobis impensuri circa ardua regni. Whereby it should seem that Princes came to Parliament not only [on] the days of solemnity, when they came without writ, but also on the days of sitting. And if it should be so, then the Prince may vote, and likewise may be of a Committee of the Upper-House, and consequently may be of a Conference with the Lower-House, and the like. This might have been made more manifest as to the presence and acts of the Prince in days of sitting, if through the negligence of officers the journal books of the Upper-House of Parliament before the reign of king Henry VIII. were not all missing. All which we thought it appertained to our care to look through, and faithfully to represent to his Majesty; and having agreed secrecy amongst ourselves, and enjoined it to the inferior officers, we humbly desire to know his Majesty's pleasure, whether he will silence the question altogether, or make use of it for his service, or refer it to his Council, or what other course he will be pleased to take according to his great wisdom and good pleasure. This we have dispatched the sooner, because the writs of summons must have forty days distance from the first days of the Parliament. And for the other parts of our accounts, his Majesty shall hear from us, by the grace of God, within few days; evermore praying for his Majesty's prosperity, and wishing your Lordship much happiness. Your Lordship's to be commanded, FR. VERULAM, Canc., EDW. COKE, H. MONTagu, York-house, 21 Nov. 1620. TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.1 After my very hearty commendations, I have acquainted his Majesty with your letter, who commanded me to tell you that he had been thinking upon the same point whereof you write three or four days ago, being so far from making any question of it, that he every day expected when a writ should come down; for at the creation of Prince Henry, the Lords of the Council and Judges assured his Majesty of as much as the precedents mentioned in your letter speak of. And so I rest Your Lordship's very loving friend at command, G. BUCKINGHAM. Newmarket, the 24th of Nov. 1620. 1 Harl. MSS. 7000, f. 32. Original. Docketed "Nov. 24, 1620. Shewing his M. is satisfied with precedents touching the Prince's summons to Parlia ment." TO THE R. HONOURABLE OUR VERY GOOD L. THE MARQ: OF BUCKINGHAM L. HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND.1 Our very good Lord, It may please his Majesty to call to mind, that when we gave his Majesty our last account of parliament business in his presence, we went over the grievances of the last parliament in 7 mo, with our opinion, by way of probable conjecture, which of them are like to fall off, and which may perchance stick and be renewed. And we did also then acquaint his Majesty, that we thought it no less fit to take into consideration grievances of like nature, which have sprung since the said last session, which are the more like to be called upon, by how much they are the more fresh; signifying withal that they were of two kinds; some, Proclamations and Commissions, and many Patents; which nevertheless we did not then trouble his Majesty withal in particular; partly for that we were not then fully prepared (it being a work of some length) and partly for that we then desired and obtained leave of his Majesty to communicate them with the Council-table. But since, I the Chancellor received his Majesty's pleasure by Secretary Calvert, that we should first present them to his Majesty with some advice thereupon, provisional, and as we are capable, and thereupon know his Majesty's pleasure before they be brought to the table, which is the work of this dispatch. And herein his Majesty may be likewise pleased to call to mind, that we then said, and do now humbly make remonstrance to his Majesty, that in this we do not so much express the sense of our own minds or judgments upon the particulars, as we do personate the Lower House, and cast with ourselves what is like to be stirred there. And therefore if there be any thing, either in respect of the matter or the persons, that stands not so well with his Majesty's good liking, that his Majesty would be graciously pleased not to impute it unto us; and withal to consider that it is to this good end, that his Majesty may either remove such of them as in his own princely judgment or with 1 Tanner MSS. 290, f. 33. Original. The rough draught (with many corrections in Bacon's own hand), is in Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 238. Docketed by him "The Lord Chancellor and two Chief Justices to the King concerning Parliament business." VOL. VII. L |