“Mrs. Foulkes is the Lay-rector of Stanstey, and takes the tithes. She pays one shilling a year as quit-rent to the Lord of the Manor of Stanstey, County Denbigh” (Blount’s “Tenures”).
“That all appropriated churches shall have secular vicars” (see “Statutes,” vol. ii., Henry IV., c. 13).
They could be Peeresses in their own Right, and liable to Summons to Parliament in Person.—Sir Harris Nicolas says, “The usual form of a writ of summons to Parliament is common. There is one solitary instance, however, of an express limitation of the dignity to heirs male, i.e., in the Barony of Vesci”[[3]] (“Historic Peerages and Baronies by Writ”). In Lady Spenser’s case (M. 11, Henry IV., f. 15) it was decided that it was clear law at all times that a Dame might be “Peer de Realm and entitled to all the privileges of such.”[[4]] “All peers of the realm are looked on as the King’s Hereditary Councillors” (see Jacob’s “Law Dictionary”).
[3]. It is strange that this unique exception should have occurred in this barony, which had come through a woman, and had been held by a woman. Yvo de Vesci came over with William the Conqueror, and married Alda Tyson, daughter and heir of the Lord of Alnwick. Their daughter Beatrix was sole heir, and married Eustace of Knaresborough, their son taking his mother’s name of De Vesci.
[4]. See also “Statutes,” vol. ii., p. 321. Noble ladies shall be tried as peers of the realm are tried, when they are indicted of treason or felony, 20 Henry VI.
The opinions of Peeresses as representing property, were always considered in the councils of the King. In the early Norman days they sat among “The Magnates Regni” in right of their fees and communities. “In the Constitutions of Clarendon, Henry II., we find that ‘Universe Persona Regni, qui de Rege tenent in Capite’ were to attend the King’s Court and Council.” (Report of the Lord’s Committee on the Dignity of a Peer of the Realm.) The Abbesses, especially those of Shaftesbury, Barking, Wilton and St. Mary of Winchester, holding directly of the King, were summoned to Anglo-Norman Parliaments, as they had been summoned to Anglo-Saxon Witenagemots. Selden mentions their Summons of 5 Edward I. as being extant in his time; their Summons, twenty-nine years later, to the Parliament of 34 Edward I. is still extant, written in the same manner and terms as those of the other clergy. (Palgrave’s “Parliamentary Writs”; 34 Edward I.)
Other Peeresses were summoned according to their inheritance, which, we have seen, followed different lines from what it does to-day, or by proxy. By an exemption, intended as a privilege in these days of rough travelling and dangers, a peeress was permitted “to chuse and name her lawful proxy to appear for her ad colloquimn et tractatium coram rege on her behalf.”
Alicia de Bigod sent her two proxies to Parliament, 35 Edward I. (See Rot. Parl., 189.) Selden and Gurden mention “nine peeresses so summoned to the Parliament of 35 Edward III.” There were in reality ten. But there was not a Parliament proper that year, no writs having been issued for the Commons. It was rather a council of Peers and Peeresses, especially of those holding lands in Ireland, who were summoned to consult with the King what should be done in that country, and what aid they would grant the King. “Anno 35 Edward III., null summoniciones but summons to council 11 Comitissæ summonitæ at mittend. sede dagnos ad. colloq.” (Harl. MS., 6204).
“De consilio summonite pro Terras habentibus in Hibernia 35 Edward III., Maria Comitissa Norfolk, Elianora Comitissa Ormond, Anna le Despencer, Pha. Comitissa de la Marche, Johanna Fitz Walter, Agnes Comitissa Pembroch, Maria de Sco Paulo Comitissa Pembroch, Margeria de Ros, Matilda Comitissa Oxon, Katherina, Com. Atholl, Nulla summonitii Parliamenti” (Harl., 778). Dugdale gives the same names (“Summons to Parliament,” p. 263) as summoned by their faith and allegiance to send a deputy to consult with the King and his council at Westminster. “Consimiliæ Brevia diriguntur subscriptis, sub eadam Data, de essendo coram Rege and consulo suo ad dies subscriptos viz., Ad Quindenam Paschæ Mariæ Comitissa Norfolciæ, Alianora Comitissa de Ormond, Annæ le Despenser, Ad tres Septimanas Paschæ Philippæ Comitissæ de la March, Johannæ Fitz-Wauter, Agneti Comitissa Pembrochiæ, Mariæ de S. Paulo Comitissa Pembroc., Margeria de Roos, Matildæ Comitissæ Oxon, Katarinæ Comitissæ Atholl,” 35 Edward III., claus in dorso m. 36. These because they had property in Ireland.”
The proxies,[[5]] however, do not imply that the ladies themselves would not have been admitted had they chosen to appear, as the special summons of Margaret, Countess Marshall, in 1 Richard II., clearly proves. Men also were allowed to send proxies. “The Bishop of Bath and Wells being infirm and old is allowed to send a proxy to Parliament.” “Ralph Botiller Miles, Lord of Sudeley, has the same permission” (6 Rot. Parl., app., ex Rot. Parl., 1 Edward IV., p. 1, m. [19] 227, a. b.).