73. HENRY VII: STATUTES

(A) Act of Succession (1485)

Henry, by the grace of God, king of England and of France and lord of 
Ireland, at the parliament holden at Westminster the seventh day of 
November, in the first year of the reign of King Henry VII after the 
Conquest. To the pleasure of Almighty God, the wealth, prosperity, and 
surety of this realm of England, to the singular comfort of all the king's 
subjects of the same and in avoiding of all ambiguities and questions: be it 
ordained, established, and enacted by authority of this present parliament 
that the inheritances of the crowns of the realms of England and of France, 
with all the pre-eminence and dignity royal to the same pertaining, and all 
other seignories to the king belonging beyond the sea, with the 
appurtenances thereto in any wise due or pertaining, be, rest, remain, and 
abide in the most royal person of our now sovereign lord, King Henry VII, 
and in the heirs of his body lawfully coming, perpetually with the grace of 
God so to endure, and in none other. Statutes of the Realm, II, 499: 1 Henry 
VII, c. I.

(B) Star Chamber Act (1487)[1]

An act giving the court of star chamber authority to punish divers 
misdemeanours. The king, our sovereign lord, remembereth how, by unlawful 
maintenances, giving of liveries, signs, and tokens, and retainders by 
indenture, promises, oaths, writing, or otherwise, embraceries of his 
subjects, untrue demeanings of sheriffs in making of panels and other untrue 
returns, by taking of money by juries, by great riots and unlawful 
assemblies, the policy and good rule of this realm is almost subdued, and 
for the none punishment of this inconvenience and by occasion of the 
premises nothing or little may be found by inquiry; whereby the laws of the 
land in execution may take little effect, to the increase of murders, 
robberies, perjuries, and unsureties of all men living, and losses of their 
lands and goods, to the great displeasure of Almighty God: be it therefore 
ordained for reformation of the premises by the authority of this parliament 
that the chancellor and treasurer of England for the time being and keeper 
of the king's privy seal, or two of them, calling to [them] a bishop and 
temporal lord of the king's most honourable council and the two chief 
justices of the king's bench and common pleas for the time being, or other 
two justices in their absence, upon bill or information put to the said 
chancellor for the king or any other against any person for any misbehaving 
afore-rehearsed, have authority to call before them by writ or privy seal 
the said misdoers, and them and other by their discretions to whom the truth 
may be known to examine, and such as they find therein defective to punish 
them after their demerits, after the form and effect of statutes thereof 
made, in like manner and form as they should and ought to be punished if 
they were thereof convict after the due order of the law....

                               Ibid., II, 509 f.: 3 Henry VII, c. I.

(C) Act Concerning Justices of the Peace (1489)[2]

An act for justices of peace for the due execution of their commissions. The 
king our sovereign lord considereth that, by the negligence and 
misdemeaning, favour, and other inordinate causes of the justice of peace in 
every shire of this his realm, the laws and ordinances made for the politic 
weal, peace, and good rule of the same, and for perfect security and restful 
living of his subjects of the same, be not duly executed according to the 
tenor and effect that they were made and ordained for; wherefore his 
subjects be grievously hurt and out of surety of their bodies and goods, to 
his great displeasure; for to him is nothing more joyous than to know his 
subjects to live peaceably under his laws and to increase in wealth and 
prosperity: and to avoid such enormities and injuries, so that his said 
subjects may live more restful under his peace and laws to their increase, 
he will that it be ordained and enacted by the authority of this present 
parliament that every justice of the peace within every shire of this his 
said realm, within the shire where he is justice of peace, do cause openly 
and solemnly to be proclaimed yearly, four times in a year in four principal 
sessions, the tenor of this proclamation to this bill annexed; and that 
every justice of peace being present at any of the said sessions, if they 
cause not the said proclamation to be made in form abovesaid, shall forfeit 
to our said sovereign lord at every time 20s.... And his grace considereth 
that a great part of the wealth and prosperity of this land standeth in 
that, that his subjects may live in surety under his peace in their bodies 
and goods; and that the husbandry of this land may increase and be upholden, 
which must be had by due execution of the said laws and ordinances: 
[wherefore he] chargeth and commandeth all the justices of the peace ... to 
endeavour them to execute ... the said laws and ordinances ordained for 
subduing of the premises, as they will stand in the love and favour of his 
grace, and in avoiding of the pains that be ordained if they do the 
contrary.... And over this, he chargeth and commandeth all manner of men, as 
well the poor as the rich (which be to him all one in due ministration of 
justice) that is hurt or grieved in anything that the said justice of peace 
may hear or determine or execute in any wise, that he [who is] so grieved 
make his complaint to the justice of peace that next dwelleth unto him, or 
to any of his fellows, and desire d remedy. And if he then have no remedy, 
if it be nigh such time as his justices of assizes come into that shire, 
that then he so grieved show his complaint to the same justices. And if he 
then have no remedy, or if the complaint be made long afore the coming of 
the justices of assize, then he so grieved [may] come to the king's 
highness, or to his chancellor for the time being, and show his grief. And 
his said highness then shall send for the said justices to know the cause 
why his said subjects be not eased and his laws executed; whereupon, if he 
find any of them in default of executing of his laws in these premises 
according to this his high commandment, he shall do him so offending to be 
put out of the commission, and further to be punished according to his 
demerits. And over that, his said highness shall not let for any favour, 
affection, cost, charge, nor none other cause, but that he shall see his 
laws to have plain and due execution. and his subjects to live in surety of 
their lands, bodies, and goods, according to his said laws, and the said 
mischiefs to be avoided, that his said subjects may increase in wealth and 
prosperity to the pleasure of God.

                              Ibid., II, 536 f.: 4 Henry VII, c. 12.

(D) Poyning's Law (1494)

An act that no parliament be holden in this land [of Ireland] until the acts 
be certified into England.... Item, at the request of the commons of the 
land of Ireland, be it ordained, enacted, and established that ... no 
parliament be holden hereafter in the said land, but at such season as the 
king's lieutenant and council there first do certify [to] the king, under 
the great seal of that land, the causes and considerations, and all such 
acts as them seemeth should pass in the same parliament; and [after] such 
causes, considerations, and acts affirmed by the king and his council to be 
good and expedient for that land, and his licence thereupon, as well in 
affirmation of the said causes and acts, as to summon the said parliament 
under his great seal of England [are] had and obtained ... , a parliament 
[is] to be had and holden after the form and effect above rehearsed. And if 
any parliament be holden in that land hereafter contrary to the form and 
provision aforesaid, it [shall] be deemed void and of none effect in law.

                Statutes at Large, Ireland, I, 44: 10 Henry VII, c. 4.

(E) Statute of Treason (1495)[3]

An act that no person going with the king to the wars shall be attaint of 
treason. The king our sovereign lord, calling to his remembrance the duty of 
allegiance of his subjects of this his realm, and that they by reason of the 
same are bounden to serve their prince and sovereign lord for the time being 
in his wars for the defence of him and the land against every rebellion, 
power, and might reared against him, and with him to enter and abide in 
service in battle if the case so require; and ... that it is not reasonable 
but against all laws, reason, and good conscience that the said subjects 
going with their sovereign lord in wars attending upon him in his person, or 
being in other places by his commandment within this land or without, 
anything should lose or forfeit for doing their true duty and service of 
allegiance: it be therefore ordained, enacted, and established by the king 
our sovereign lord, by advice and assent of the lords spiritual and temporal 
and commons in this present parliament assembled, and by authority of the 
same, that from henceforth no manner of person nor persons, whatsoever he or 
they be, that attend upon the king and sovereign lord of this land for the 
time being in his person, and do him true and faithful service of allegiance 
in the same, or be in other places by his commandment, in his wars within 
this land or without, that for the same deed and true service of allegiance 
he or they be in no wise convict or attaint of high treason nor of other 
offences for that cause by act of parliament or otherwise by any process of 
law, whereby he or any of them shall ... forfeit life, lands, tenements, 
rents, possessions, hereditaments, goods, chattels, or any other things, but 
to be for that deed and service utterly discharged of any vexation, trouble, 
or loss; and if any act or acts or other process of the law hereafter 
thereupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this ordinance, that 
then that act or acts or other processes of the law, whatsoever they shall 
be, stand and be utterly void.

Provided alway that no person nor persons shall take any benefit of 
advantage by this act which shall hereafter decline from his or their said 
allegiance.

                  Statutes of the Realm, II, 568: 11 Henry VII, c. I.

(F) Statute of Liveries (1504)

De retentionibus illicitis. The king our sovereign lord calleth to his 
remembrance that, where before this time divers statutes for punishment of 
such persons that give or receive liveries, or that retain any person or 
persons or be retained with any person or persons ... , have been made and 
established ... ,[4] and little ... is or hath been done for the punishment 
of the offenders in that behalf: wherefore our sovereign lord the king, by 
the advice of the lords spiritual and temporal and of his commons of his 
realm in this parliament being, and by the authority of the same, hath 
ordained, stablished, and enacted that all his [such] statutes and 
ordinances afore this time made ... be ... put in due execution. And over 
that ... , the king ordaineth, stablisheth, and enacteth, by the said 
authority, that no person, of what estate or degree or condition he be ... , 
privily or openly give any livery or sign or retain any person, other than 
such as he giveth household wages unto without fraud or colour, or that he 
be his manual servant or his officer or man learned in the one law or in the 
other,[5] by any writing, oath, promise, livery, sign, badge, token, or in 
any other manner ... unlawfully retain; and if any do the contrary, that 
then he run and fall in the pain and forfeiture for every such livery and 
sign, badge, or token, 100s., and the taker and accepter of every such 
livery, badge, token, or sign [is] to forfeit and pay for every such livery 
and sign, badge or token, so accepted, 100s....

Moreover, the king, our sovereign lord, by the advice, assent, and authority 
aforesaid, hath ordained, stablished, and enacted that every person that 
will sue or complain before the chancellor of England or the keeper of the 
king's great seal in the star chamber, or before the king in his bench, or 
before the king and his council attending upon his most royal person 
wheresoever he be — so that there be three of the same council at the least, 
of the which two shall be lords spiritual or temporal — against any person 
or persons offending or doing against the form of this ordinance or any 
other of the premises, be admitted by their discretion to give information 
...; and that upon the same all such persons be called by writ, subpoena, 
privy seal, or otherwise, and the said chancellor [etc.] ... [are] to have 
power to examine all persons defendants ... as well by oath as otherwise, 
and to adjudge him or them convict or attaint, as well by such examination 
as otherwise in such penalties ... as the case shall require.... And also 
the same party, plaintiff, or informer shall have such reasonable reward of 
that that by his complaint shall grow to the king as shall be thought 
reasonable by the discretion of the said chancellor [etc.] ... And also it 
is enacted by the said authority that the said chancellor [etc.] ... have 
full authority and power by this statute to ... send by writ, subpoena, 
privy seal, warrant, or otherwise by their discretion, for any person or 
persons offending or doing contrary to the premises, without any suit or 
information made or put before them or any of them; and the same person or 
persons to examine by oath or otherwise by their discretions, and to adjudge 
all such persons as shall be found guilty in the premises by verdict, 
confession, examination, proofs, or otherwise, in the said forfeitures and 
pains as the case shall require, as though they were condemned therein after 
the course of the common law; and to commit such offenders to ward, and to 
award execution accordingly....

                             Ibid., II, 658 f.: 19 Henry VII, c. 14.



[1] Cf. nos. 67B (last paragraph), 70G. See A. F. Pollard, "Council, Star 
Chamber, and Privy Council under the Tudors," in the English Historical 
Review, XXXVII-XXXVIII.

[2] Cf. no. 62 I.

[3] Cf. no. 62F.

[4] Cf. no. 64C.

[5] That is to say, the civil or the canon law.