Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of Britaine

by Raphael Holinshed; William Harrison; John Hooker

¶ The summe of the foresaid number of the common house videlicet, of

Knights.	90.
Citizens.	46.
Burgesses.	289.
Barons.	14. ——
	439. ——

OF THE LAWES OF ENGLAND SINCE HIR FIRST INHABITATION.
CHAP. IX.

Samothes. That Samothes or Dis gaue the first lawes to the Celtes (whose kingdome he erected about the fiftéenth of Nimbrote) the testimonie of Berosus is proofe sufficient. For he not onelie affirmeth him to publish the same in the fourth of Ninus, but also addeth thereto, how there liued none in his daies of more excellent wisdome, nor politike inuention than he, whereof he was named Samothes, as some other do affirme. What his lawes were, it is now altogither vnknowne, as most things of this age; but Albion. that they were altered againe at the comming of Albion, no man can absolutelie denie, sith new lords vse commonlie to giue new lawes, and conquerors abolish such as were in vse before them.

Brute. The like also may be affirmed of our Brute, notwithstanding that the certeine knowledge so well of the one as of the other is perished, and nothing worthie memorie left of all their dooings. Somewhat yet we haue Mulmutius. of Mulmutius, who not onelie subdued such princes as reigned in this land, but also brought the realme to good order, that long before had béene torne with ciuill discord. But where his lawes are to be found, and which they be from other mens, no man liuing in these daies is able to determine.

Certes, there was neuer prince in Britaine, of whome his subiects conceiued better hope in the beginning, than of Bladudus, and yet I read of none that made so ridiculous an end: in like sort there hath not reigned anie monarch in this Ile, whose waies were more feared at the The praise of Dunwallon. first, than those of Dunwallon (king Henrie the fift excepted) and yet in the end he prooued such a prince, as after his death there was in maner no subiect, that did not lament his funerals. And this onelie for his policie in gouernance, seuere administration of iustice, and prouident framing of his lawes and constitutions, for the gouernment of his subiects. His people also, coueting to continue his name vnto posteritie, intituled those his ordinances according to their maker, calling them by the name of the lawes of Mulmutius, which indured in execution among the Britons, so long as our homelings had the dominion of this Ile. Afterward when the comeling Saxons had once obteined the superioritie of the kingdom, the maiestie of those lawes fell for a time into such decaie, that although "Non penitùs cecidit, tamen potuit cecidisse videri," as Leland saith, and the decrées themselues had vtterlie perished in déed at the verie first brunt, had they not beene preserued in Wales, where they remained amongst the relikes of the Britons, & not onlie vntill the comming of the Normans, but euen vntill the time of Edward the first, who obteining the souereigntie of that portion, indeuoured verie earnestlie to extinguish those of Mulmutius, and to establish his owne.

But as the Saxons at their first arriuall did what they could to abolish the British lawes, so in processe of time they yéelded a little to relent, & not so much to abhorre and mislike of the lawes of Mulmutius, as to receiue and imbrace the same, especiallie at such time as the said Saxon princes entered into amitie with the British nobilitie, and after that began to ioine in matrimonie with the British ladies, as the British barons did with the Saxon frowes, both by an especiall statute and decrée, wherof in another treatise I haue made mention at large. Héerof also it came to passe in the end, that they were contented to make a choise, and insert no small numbers of them into their owne volumes, as may be gathered by those of Athelbert the great, surnamed king of Kent, Inas and Alfred kings of the west Saxons, and diuerse other yet extant to be séene. Such also was the lateward estimation of them, that when anie of the Saxon princes went about to make new ordinances, they caused those of Mulmutius (which Gildas sometime translated into Latine) to be first expounded vnto them, and in this perusall if they found anie there alreadie framed, that might serue their turnes, they foorthwith reuiued the same, and annexed them to their owne.

But in this dealing, the diligence of Alfred is most of all to be commended, who not onelie chose out the best, but gathered togither all such whatsoeuer the said Mulmutius had made: and then to the end they should lie no more in corners as forlorne bookes, and vnknowne to the learned of his kingdome, he caused them to be turned into the Saxon toong, wherein they continued long after his decease.

As for the Normans, who for a season neither regarded the British, nor cared for the Saxon statutes, they also at the first vtterlie misliked of them, till at the last, when they had well weied that one kind of regiment is not conuenient for all peoples, and that no stranger, being in a forren countrie newlie brought vnder obedience, could make such equall ordinances, as he might thereby gouerne his new common-wealth without some care & trouble: they fell in with such a desire to sée by what rule the state of the land was gouerned in time of the Saxons, that hauing perused the same, they not onelie commended their maner of regiment, but also admitted a great part of their lawes (now currant vnder the name of S. Edwards lawes, and vsed as principles and grounds) whereby they not onelie qualified the rigor of their owne, and mitigated their almost intollerable burden of seruitude which they had latelie laid vpon the shoulders of the English, but also left vs a great number of the old Mulmutian lawes, whereof the most part are in vse to this daie as I said, albeit that we know not certeinlie how to distinguish them from others, that are in strength amongst vs.