The Principal Rights of all English Freemen, Floating text 3
To the Kings moſt excellent Majeſty.
HUmbly ſheweth, unto our Soveraign Lord the King, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in this preſent Parliament aſſembled; That whereas it is declared and enacted, by a Statute made in the time of King Edward the 1. commonly called Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo; That no Tallage or Aid ſhall be taken or levied by the King or his heirs in this Realm, without the good will or aſſent of the Archbiſhops, Biſhops, Earls, Barons, Knights, Burgeſſes, and other the Freemen of the Commonalty of this Realm. And by an Authority of Parliament holden the 25 year of the reign of King Edward the 3d. it is declared and enacted; That from thenceforth, no perſon ſhould be compelled to make any loans to the King againſt his will, becauſe ſuch Loans were againſt reaſon, and the Franchiſes of the Land. And by other Lawes of this Realm it is provided; That none ſhall be charged by any Charge or Compoſition, called a Benevolence, nor by any ſuch like Charge. By which Statutes before mentioned, and other the good Laws and Statutes of this Realm, your Subjects have inherited this freedom: That they ſhould not be compelled to contribute any Tax, Tallage, or Aid, or other like Charge, not ſet by common Aſſent by Act of Parliament. Yet nevertheleſſe of late divers Commiſſions (directed to ſundry perſons in ſeveral Counties, with their inſtructions) have iſſued, by pretext whereof your people have been in divers places aſſembled, and required to lend certain ſums of mony to your Majeſty. And many of them upon their refuſal ſo to doe, have had an Oath not warranted by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm adminiſtred unto them; and have been conſtrained to become bound to make appearance, and to give attendance before your Privy Counſel at London, and in other places: and others of them have been therefore impriſoned, confined, and certain otherways moleſted and diſquieted; And divers other charges have been laid and levied upon your people in ſeveral Counties, by Lord Lieutenants, Deputy Lieutenants, Commiſſioners for Musters, Juſtices of Peace, and others, by command or direction from your Majeſty, or your Privy Counſel, againſt the Laws and free Cuſtoms of the Realm.
And whereas alſo by the Statute called the Great Charter of the Liberties of England, it is declared and enacted, That no Free-man may be taken or impriſoned, or be diſſeiſed of his Freehold or Liberties, or free Cuſtoms, or be outlawed, or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, nor paſſed upon, nor condemned, but by the lawfull Iudgement of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. And in the 28 year of King Edward the 3. it was enacted and declared by an Authority of Parliament, that no man of what State or condition ſoever, ſhall be put out of his Lands or Tenements, nor taken, nor impriſoued, nor diſinherited, nor put to death, without being brought to anſwer by due proceſs of Law. Nevertheleſſe againſt the Tenor of the ſaid Statutes, and other the good Laws and Statutes of your Realm to that end provided; divers of your Subjects have of late been impriſoned without any cauſe ſhewed: and when for their deliverance they were brought before your Juſtices, by your Majeſties writs of Habeas Corpus, there to undergo and receive as the Court ſhould order; and the Keepers commanded to certifie the cauſes of their deteiner; no cauſe was certified but that they were deteined by your Majeſties ſpecial command, ſignified by the Lords of your Privy Council: And yet were returned back to ſeveral Priſons without being charged with any thing, to which they might make anſwer according to Law.
And whereas of late great companies of Souldiers and Mariners have been diſperſed into divers Counties of the Realm, and the Inhabitants against their Wills have been compelled to receive them into their Houſes, and there to ſuffer them to ſojourn, againſt the Laws and Customes of this Realm, to the great Grievance and Vexation of the people. And whereas alſo by authority of Parliament, in the 25 year of King Edward the third, it was declared and enacted: That no man ſhould be forejudged of life or limbs againſt the form of the Great Charer: And by other the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, No man ought to be adjudged to death, but by the Laws eſtabliſhed in this your Realm, either by the Customes of the ſame Realm, or by Act of Parliament. And whereas no Offender of what kind ſoever is exempted from the proceedings to to be uſed, and puniſhments to be infflicted by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm. Nevertheleſſe of late time, divers Commiſſions under your Majeſties Great Seal have iſſued forth, by which certain Perſons have been aſſigned and appointed Commiſſioners, with Power and Authority to proceed within the Land, according to the custome of Martial Law, againſt ſuch Souldiers or Seamen, or other diſſolute Perſons, joining with them, as ſhould commit any Murther, Robbery, Felony, Mutiny, or other Outrage or miſdemeanour whatſoever; and by ſuch Summary Caurſe and Orders as is agreeable to Martial Law, and as is uſed in Armies in time of Wars, to proceed to the Trials and condemnation of ſuch Offenders, and them to cauſe to be executed and put to death, according to the Law Martial. By pretext whereof, ſome of your Majeſties Subjects have been by ſome of your Majeſties Commiſſioners put to death, when and where, if by the Laws and Statutes of the Land, they had deſerved death, by the ſame Laws and Statutes alſo they might, and by no other ought to be judged and executed. And alſo ſundry grievous Offenders by colour thereof, claiming an exemption, have eſcaped the puniſhments due to them by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm, by reaſon that divers of your Officers and Miniſters of Juſtice have unjuſtly refuſed or forborn to proceed againſt ſuch Offenders according to the ſame Laws and Statutes, upon pretence, that the ſaid Offenders were puniſhable only by Martial Law, and by Authority of ſuch Commiſſions as aforeſaid. Which Commiſſions, and all other of like nature, extended to any except Souldiers, or Mariners, or to be executed in time of Peace, or when or where, your Majeſties Army is not on foot, are wholly and directly contrary to the ſaid Laws and Statutes of this your Realm.
They do therefore humbly pray your moſt excellent Majeſty, that none hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift, Loan, Benevolence, Tax, or ſuch like charge, without common; conſent by Act of Parliament: And that none be called to make anſwer, or take ſuch Oath, or to give attendance, or be confined or otherwiſe moleſted or diſquieted concerning the ſame, or for reſuſal thereof; And that no Freeman in any ſuch manner as is before mentioned, be impriſoned or deteined; And that your Majeſty would be pleaſed to remove the ſaid Souldiers, and Mariners, and that your People may not be ſo burthened in time to to come; And that the aforeſaid Commiſſion for proceeding by Martial Law may be revoked, and …nulled; And that hereafter no Commiſsion of like nature may iſſue forth to any Perſon or Perſons whatſoever, to be executed as aforeſaid; leſt by colour of them any of your Majeſties Subjects be deſtroyed or put to death, contrary to the Laws and franchiſes of the Land.
All which, they humbly pray of your moſt excellent Majeſty as their Rights of Liberties, according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm; And that your Majeſty would alſo vouchſafe to declare, that the awards, doings, and proceedings to the prejudice of your People in any of the premiſes, ſhall not be drawn hereafter in conſequence, or example; And that your Majeſty would alſo be graciouſly pleaſed for the futher comfort, and ſafety of your People, to declare your Royal Will and pleaſure, That in the things aforeſaid, all your Officers and Miniſters ſhall ſerve you, according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, as they tender the honor of your Majeſty, and the Proſperitie of this Kingdome.
To which Petition King Charles at laſt gave this full and ſatisfactory Anſwer: Soit droit fait come il eſt deſire par le Petition: that is, Let All Right be done as it is deſired by the Petition. To the unſpekaable joy of this Parliament and all his Subjects. Adding withall thereunto: I aſſure you my Maxim is, That the Peoples Liberties ſtrengthen the Kings Prerogative: and that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties.
The benefit of which moſt excellent Law, Petition, and of all the precedent Parliamentary Votes, Lawes (with the preſent repealing, and vacating all Acts, Votes, Orders, Ordinances, Declarations, Reſolutions, Iudgements, Inſtruments repugnant thereunto, as meerly void in Law, by the expreſs Statutes of 25 E. 1. c. 2. 42 E. 3. c. 3. and the Petition of Right) we all now jointly and ſeverally claim as our undoubted Birth-rights, and as the Price, Crown, Trophy, Guerdon of all our late Parliamentary Counſels, expended Treaſures, Bloudſheds, Wars, Victories, over the real or pretended Enemies of theſe our juſt Liberties, Franchiſes, Rights, Laws, and Introducers of an Arbitrary, and Tyrannicall Government repugnant thereunto (wherein many thouſands of the Nobility, Gentry and Commons of the realm of chiefeſt rank hazarded their eſtates, bloud, lives in the field, as well as the Army-Officers, to preſerve and enjoy the forementioned fundamental Laws, Liberties, Rights and Properties) which we hope no true-bred Engliſh Freeman or Swordman whatſoever can have the hearts or faces to deny unto us, againſt all their former Proteſtations, Remonſtrances, Vows, Oaths, Covenants, Engagements, both to God and the Engliſh Nation, for fear of being made ſhorter by the head, as the moſt perfidious Traytors, or rolled into their graves in bloud by the over-oppreſſed enraged people, as the moſt inſolent oppreſſing Tyrants, yea tumbled headlong into Hell flames for all eternity, Soul and Body, by God himſelf, as the moſt perjured execrable Hypocrites and Impoſtors that ever England bred.
Gal. 5. 1, 13, 14, 15. Stand faſt therfore in the Liberty wherewith Chriſt hath made us free, and be not intangled again with the yoke of Bondage. For Brethren, ye have been called unto Liberty: only uſe not Liberty for an occaſion to the fleſh, but by love ferve one another. For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even this, Thou ſhalt love thy Neighbour as thy ſelf. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not conſumed one of another.