The Growth of the English Constitution from the Earliest TimesFreeman, Edward A. (Edward Augustus)
History
The Growth of the English Constitution from the Earliest Times
Freeman, Edward A. (Edward Augustus)
Constitutional history -- Great Britain
(46) The exact value of the document commonly known as the statute “De
Tallagio non concedendo” is discussed by Professor Stubbs, p. 487. It
is perhaps safest to look on it, like many of the earlier collections
of laws, not indeed as an actual statute, but as good evidence of a
principle which, from the time of the Confirmation of the Charters, has
been universally received. The words are—
“Nullum tallagium vel auxilium per nos vel hæredes nostros de cetero in
regno nostro imponatur seu levetur, sine voluntate et assensu communi
archiepiscoporum, episcoporum et aliorum prælatorum, comitum, baronum,
militum, burgensium, et aliorum liberorum hominum in regno nostro.”
This, it will be seen, is the same provision which I have already
quoted (see above, Note 36) from the Great Charter of John, but which
was left out in the Charter in the form in which it was confirmed by
Henry the Third. See Stubbs, 330, 332, 336.
(47) I have said this before in Historical Essays, p. 41. On the
strongly marked legal character of Edward’s age, and especially of
Edward’s own mind, see Stubbs, 417.
(48) The great statute of treason of 25 Edward the Third (see the
Revised Edition of the Statutes, i. 185) secures the life of the King,
his wife, and his eldest son, and the chastity of his wife, his eldest
daughter, and his eldest son’s wife. But the personal privilege goes no
further. As the Law of England knows no classes of men except peers and
commoners, it follows that the younger children of the King—the eldest
is born Duke of Cornwall—are, in strictness of speech, commoners,
unless they are personally raised to the peerage. I am not aware that
either case has ever arisen, but I conceive that there is nothing to
hinder a King’s son, not being a peer, from voting at an election, or
from being chosen to the House of Commons, and I conceive that, if
he committed a crime, he would be tried by a jury. Mere precedence
and titles have nothing to do with the matter, though probably a good
deal of confusion arises from the very modern fashion—one might almost
say the modern vulgarism—of calling all the children of the King or
Queen “Princes” and “Princesses.” As late as the time of George the
Second uncourtly Englishmen were still found who eschewed the foreign
innovation, and who spoke of the Lady Caroline and the Lady Emily, as
their fathers had done before them.
Another modern vulgarism is that of using the word “royal”—“royal
visit,” “royal marriage,” and so forth—when there is no royalty in the
case, the person spoken of being a subject, perhaps a commoner.
(49) On the parliamentary position of the clergy see Hallam, Middle
Ages, ii. 263. And as far as the reign of Edward the First is
concerned, see the series of summonses in Stubbs, 442.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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