69. STATUTES (1399-1483)

(A) 1 Henry IV: Restriction of Appeals (1399)

14. Item, on account of the many great inconveniences and mischiefs that 
have occurred in consequence of the numerous appeals[1] heretofore made in 
the kingdom of England, it is ordained and established that henceforth all 
appeals for acts accomplished within the kingdom shall be tried and 
determined according to the good laws of the kingdom made and used in the 
time of the most noble progenitors of our said lord the king; and that all 
appeals for acts accomplished outside the kingdom shall be tried and 
terminated before the constable and marshal of England for the time being. 
And besides it is granted and agreed that henceforth no appeals shall in any 
way or at any time be made or pursued in parliament....

                          (French) Statutes of the Realm, II, 116.

(B) 3 Henry IV: For the Burning of Heretics (1401)

15.... With regard to which innovations and excesses,[2] set forth above, 
the prelates and clergy aforesaid, and also the commons of the said realm 
assembled in the same parliament, prayed the said lord king that his royal 
highness would in the said parliament deign to make provision for a suitable 
remedy. The same lord king then ... , by the assent of the magnates and 
other nobles of the said realm assembled in parliament, has granted, 
ordained, and established ... that no one within the said kingdom or the 
other dominions subject to his royal majesty shall presume to preach in 
public or in secret without having first sought and obtained the licence of 
the local diocesan,[3] always excepting curates in their own churches, 
persons who have hitherto enjoyed the privilege, and others to whom it has 
been granted by canon law; and that henceforth no one either openly or 
secretly shall preach, hold, teach, or impart anything, or compose or write 
any book, contrary to the catholic faith or the decisions of Holy Church, or 
anywhere hold conventicles or in any way have or maintain schools for such a 
sect and its nefarious doctrines and opinions; and also that in the future 
no one shall favour anybody who thus preaches, holds such or similar 
conventicles, has or maintains such schools, composes or writes such a book, 
or in any such fashion teaches, instructs, or excites the people.[4]... And 
if any person within the said kingdom and dominions is formally convicted 
before the local diocesan or his commissioners of the said nefarious 
preachings, doctrines, opinions, [holding of] schools, and heretical and 
erroneous instruction, or any of them, and if he refuses properly to abjure 
the same ... , or, after abjuration has been made by the same person, he is 
declared by the local diocesan or his commissioners to have relapsed, so 
that according to the sacred canons he ought to be relinquished to the 
secular court ... , then the sheriff of the local county and the mayor and 
sheriffs or sheriff, or the mayor and bailiffs of the city, town, or borough 
of the same county nearest the said diocesan or his said commissioners ... , 
shall, after the pronouncement of such sentences, receive those persons and 
every one of them and shall have them burned before the people in some 
prominent place, so that such punishment shall inspire fear in the minds of 
others and prevent such nefarious doctrines and heretical and erroneous 
opinions, or their authors and protagonists in the said kingdom and 
dominions, from being supported or in any way tolerated against the catholic 
faith, the Christian religion, and the decisions of Holy Church — which God 
forbid! And in all and singular of the aforesaid matters regarding the said 
ordinance and statute, the sheriffs, mayors, and bailiffs of the counties, 
cities, towns, and boroughs aforesaid are to be attentive, helpful, and 
favourable to the said diocesans and their commissioners....

                                      (Latin) Ibid., II, 126-28.

(C) 7 Henry IV: On Succession to the Throne and Elections to Parliament 
(1406)

2. Item, it is ordained and established in the said parliament at the 
request and by the assent of the said lords and commons that the inheritance 
of the crown and of the kingdoms of England and France and of all the other 
dominions of our said lord the king beyond the sea, together with all their 
appurtenances, shall be settled upon and shall remain with the person of our 
same lord the king and the heirs of his body. And at the request and by the 
assent aforesaid it is especially ordained, established, pronounced, 
decreed, and declared that my lord Prince Henry, eldest son of our said Lord 
the king, is to be heir apparent of our same lord the king to succeed him in 
[the possession of] the aforesaid crown, kingdoms, and dominions, and, after 
the death of our said lord the king, to have them with all their 
appurtenances for himself and the heirs of his body. And if he dies without 
heir of his body, then the aforesaid crown, kingdoms, and dominions, 
together with their appurtenances, shall all remain to my lord Thomas, 
second son of our said lord the king, and to the heirs of his body. And if 
he dies without heir of his body, then the aforesaid crown, kingdoms, and 
dominions, together with their appurtenances, shall all remain to my lord 
John, third son of our same lord the king, and the heirs of his body. And if 
he dies without heir of his body, then the aforesaid crown, kingdoms, and 
dominions, together with their appurtenances, shall all remain to my lord 
Humphrey, fourth son of our said lord the king, and to the heirs of his 
body....

15. Item, on the grievous complaint of the commons regarding improper 
election to parliament of knights of the shires, which, to the great scandal 
of the counties and to the retardation of the business of the community in 
the said courts, is sometimes made through the favouritism of the sheriffs 
or in other ways contrary to the writs directed to the said sheriffs, our 
sovereign lord the king, wishing to provide a remedy for these [abuses], by 
the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal and of all the commons in 
this present parliament, has ordained and established that henceforth 
elections of such knights shall be carried out according to the form that 
follows. That is to say, at the next county [court] to be held after the 
delivery of the writ for [elections to] parliament, proclamation shall be 
made in the full county [court] of the day and the place of the parliament; 
and all who are there present, as well suitors duly summoned for this 
purpose as others, shall attend to the election of their knights for the 
parliament, then freely and impartially proceeding with that election, any 
command or request to the contrary notwithstanding. And after the election 
has been held, whether the persons elected are present or absent, their 
names are to be written in an indenture under the seals of all who elected 
them, and [this indenture is to be] attached to the said writ for 
parliament. Which indenture, thus sealed and attached, shall be kept [by the 
sheriff] for return of the said writ when it comes to [certifying] the 
knights of the shire.[5] ...

                                    (French) Ibid., II, 151-56.

(D) 1 Henry V: On Elections to Parliament (1413)

First, that the statutes made concerning the election of knights of the 
shires to attend parliament shall be held and kept in all particulars, with 
the addition that henceforth in each county no knights of the shire shall be 
elected unless, on the date of the writ of summons to parliament, they are 
resident within the county where they are thus to be elected; and that the 
knights, squires, and others who are to be electors of such knights of the 
shires shall also be residents within the same counties in the manner and 
form aforesaid. And it is furthermore ordained and established that men, 
citizens, and burgesses resident, domiciled, and enfranchised in the same 
cities and boroughs are to be elected as citizens and burgesses of cities 
and boroughs [to attend parliament], and by no means any others....

                                       (French) Ibid., II, 170.

(E) 8 Henry VI: On Elections to Parliament (1429)

7. Item, whereas in many counties the elections of knights of the shires, 
those chosen to attend the king's parliaments, have of late been carried out 
by too great and excessive a number of people dwelling within those same 
counties, of whom the larger part have been people of little substance or of 
no worth, each pretending to have the same voice in such elections as the 
most worthy knights or squires dwelling in the same counties, whereby 
homicides, riots, assaults, and feuds are very likely to arise among the 
gentlefolk and other people of the same counties unless a suitable remedy is 
provided in this connection: [therefore] our lord the king, considering the 
premises, has provided and ordained by the authority of this parliament that 
knights of the shires, elected to attend parliaments hereafter to be held in 
the kingdom of England, shall be chosen in each county by persons dwelling 
and resident therein, each of whom shall have a freehold to the value of at 
least 40s. a year beyond the charges [on the estate][6]...; and that every 
sheriff of England shall, by the aforesaid authority, have power to examine 
on the Holy Gospels each such elector, [to determine] how much he is able to 
spend annually.[7]...

                                      (French) Ibid., II, 243 f.

(F) 23 Henry VI: On Elections to Parliament (1445)

14. Item, ...[8] the king, considering the premises, has ordained by the 
aforesaid authority that the said statutes shall be duly kept and observed 
in all particulars; and furthermore that each sheriff, after the delivery to 
him of every such writ [for elections to parliament], shall without fraud 
draw up and deliver a sufficient precept under his seal to each mayor and 
bailiff, or to the bailiffs or bailiff where there is no mayor, of the 
cities and boroughs within his county, reciting the same writ and commanding 
them by the same precept to have two citizens elected to attend parliament 
by the citizens of the same city, in case it is a city, or [two] burgesses 
in the same way, in case it is a borough[9] ...; and that the knights of the 
shires henceforth to be elected to parliament shall be notable knights of 
the same counties from which they are elected, or else such notable squires 
of those counties, gentlemen by birth, as are able to be knights;[10] and 
that no man who is of the rank of valet or lower is to be such knight [of 
the shire]....

                                    (French) Ibid., II, 340-42.

(G) I Edward IV: Validation of Lancastrian Acts (1461)

... First — for the avoidance of ambiguities, doubts, and differences of 
opinion that might arise, ensue, or be entertained concerning the judicial 
acts ... made or secured in the time of Henry IV, of his son Henry V, and of 
his son Henry VI, recently in succession de facto and not rightful kings of 
England, or any of them — our said lord the king, by the advice and consent 
of the lords spiritual and temporal, and at the special request of the said 
commons in the said parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, 
has declared, established, and enacted in the same parliament that all fines 
and final concords[11 ]levied or made concerning any lands, tenements, 
possessions, rents, inheritances, or other things, and all judicial acts, 
recoveries, and processes ... made or secured in any court or courts of 
record ... during the pretended reign of any of the said recent kings de 
facto and not of right[12]... shall have the same force, validity, and 
effect as if the said fines, final concords, acts, recoveries, processes, 
and other premises ... were begun, sued, had, or determined in the time of 
any king lawfully reigning in this kingdom and obtaining the crown of the 
same by just title. And [it is ordained] also that all letters patent made 
by any of the pretended kings to any person or persons for the creation, 
appointment, or promotion of any of them to any estate, dignity, or pre-
eminence shall have, for the said person or persons or for such of their 
heirs as are specified in the said letters patent, the same force, validity, 
and effect with regard to such creation, appointment, or promotion as if the 
same letters patent had been made or granted to any of them by any king 
lawfully reigning in this kingdom and obtaining the crown of the same by 
just title; and that persons thus created, appointed, or promoted shall have 
from the king new grants of annuities for the support of their estates as 
has been anciently accustomed; always excepting the persons, and each of 
them, whom our said lord the king considers and holds as rebels or 
enemies....

                                      (French) Ibid., II, 380 f.

(H) 1 Richard III: Abolition of Benevolences (1483)

... Item, our lord the king, remembering how the commons of this his realm, 
through new and unlawful inventions and inordinate avarice, against the law 
of the realm have been subjected to great servitude and unbearable charges 
and exactions, and especially so through a new imposition called 
benevolence, whereby in divers years the subjects and commons of this land 
have, against their will and freedom, paid great sums of money to their 
almost complete ruin — for many and divers honourable men of this realm were 
on that account compelled of necessity to break up their households and to 
live in great penury and wretchedness, with their debts unpaid and their 
children unpreferred, and such memorials as they had ordered for their 
souls' health were set at naught, to the great displeasure of God and the 
destruction of this realm — therefore wills and ordains by the advice and 
consent of his said lords and commons in the said parliament assembled, and 
by the authority of the same, that henceforth his subjects and the 
commonalty of this his realm shall in no way be burdened with any such 
charge or imposition called benevolence, or anything like it; and that such 
exactions called benevolences as before this time have been taken shall not 
be held as a precedent for placing such or similar charges upon any of his 
said subjects of this realm in the future, but that they are to be condemned 
and annulled forever.

                                       (French) Ibid., II. 478.



[1] That is to say, for felony and treason; cf. no. 63G.

[2] Of the Lollards, "a certain new sect," accused in the long preamble of 
holding damnable opinions concerning the sacraments and the authority of the 
Church and of doing all the things which the statute proceeds to forbid.

[3] That is to say, the bishop.

[4] Such persons are to be subjected to canonical trial in the episcopal 
court and, if convicted, to imprisonment in ecclesiastical prison as well as 
to royal fine.

[5] Cf. no. 72D.

[6] That is to say, clear annual income. The act then repeats the 
requirement of the preceding statutes, that knights of the shire must be 
resident in the county and that the sheriff must make returns by indenture.

[7] Enforcement is provided through the justices of assize, with a penalty 
of £100 on the sheriff for a false return.

[8] A long preamble recites the statutes of 1413 and 1429, enumerating their 
defects and the misdeeds of the sheriffs.

[9] The mayors and bailiffs are to make return by indenture to the sheriff; 
the latter is to make similar return to the king. Heavy penalties are 
provided for infraction of the law; also new legal remedies for persons 
aggrieved in fraudulent elections.

[10 ]That is to say, persons having the requisite income; distraint of 
knighthood (see no. 50A) had by now pretty well lapsed.

[11] Sums of money paid in the king's courts in order to secure legal 
records of agreements.

[12] Judicial acts in parliament are excepted from the force of this 
statute.