[g] Madox, Firma Burgi, p. 6; Rot. Parl. vol. i. p. 449.
[h] Rot. Parl. vol. i. p. 430.
[] It is however distinctly specified in stat. 7 Edw. II. and in 12 Edw. II., and equivalent words are found in other statutes. Though often wanting, the testimony to the constitution of parliament is sufficient and conclusive.
[k] Rot. Parl. vol. i. p. 281.
[m] Walsingham, p. 97. The Lords' committee "have found no evidence of any writ issued for election of knights, citizens, and burgesses to attend the same meetings; from the subsequent documents it seems probable that none were issued, and that the parliament which assembled at Westminster consisted only of prelates, earls, and barons." p. 259. We have no record of this parliament; but in that of 5 Edw. II. it is recited—Come le seizieme jour de Marz l'an de notre regne tierce, a l'honeur de Dieu et pour le bien de nous et de nostre roiaume, eussions granté de notre franche volonté, par nos lettres ouvertes aux prelatz, countes, et barons, et communes de dit roiaume, qu'ils puissent eslire certain persones des prelatz, comtes, et barons, &c. Rot. Parl. i. 281. The inference therefore of the committee seems erroneous. [[Note VIII.]]
[n] "La commonaltée" seems in this place to mean the tenants of land, or commons of the counties, in contradistinction to citizens and burgesses.
[o] Rot. Parl. vol. ii. p. 66. The Lords' committee observe on this passage in the roll of parliament, that "the king's right to tallage his cities, boroughs, and demesnes seems not to have been questioned by the parliament, though the commissions for setting the tallage were objected to." p. 305. But how can we believe that after the representatives of these cities and boroughs had sat, at least at times, for two reigns, and after the explicit renunciation of all right of tallage by Edward I. (for it was never pretended that the king could lay a tallage on any towns which did not hold of himself), there could have been a parliament which "did not question" the legality of a tallage set without their consent? The silence of the rolls of parliament would furnish but a poor argument. But in fact their language is expressive enough. The several ranks of lords and commons grant the fifteenth penny from the commonalty, and the tenth from the cities, boroughs, and demesnes of the king, "that our lord the king may live of his own, and pay for his expenses, and not aggrieve his people by excessive (outraiouses) prises, or otherwise." And upon this the king revokes the commission in the words of the text. Can anything be clearer than that the parliament, though in a much gentler tone than they came afterwards to assume, intimate the illegality of the late tallage? As to any other objection to the commissions, which the committee suppose to have been taken, nothing appears on the roll.
[p] Rot. Parl. vol. ii. p. 104.
[q] Id.
[r] Rot. Parl. vol. ii. p. 161.