And whereas of late great companies of soldiers and marines 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 customs of the realm, and to the great grievance and vexation of the people.... They do therefore humbly pray your most Excellent Majesty, that no man 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 refusal thereof; ... and that your Majesty will be pleased to remove the said soldiers and marines, and that your people may not be burdened in time to come. 2 _Parl. Hist._ 374-6. The Petition of Right may also be found in S. R. Gardiner, _Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625-1660_, 66-70; Adams and Stephens, _Sel. Doc._ 339-342. Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 430-433. [343] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 66, note 2. [344] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 432. [345] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 433-434. [346] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 442, 443. [347] 2 Ibid. 449, 453. [348] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 454. [349] 2 Ibid. 482. [350] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 457, 491. [351] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 82, 83; 2 _Parl. Hist._ 491. [352] “The king’s declaration of the causes of the late dissolution.” Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 83-99; 2 _Parl. Hist._ 492-504. [353] 2 _Parl. Hist._ 525. [354] 2 Hallam, _Const. Hist. Eng._ 15. The “parchments in the Tower” might readily have included the following, which exhibits an historical precedent for the ship money: “1008. Rex Anglorum Aegelredus de ccc. x. cassatis unam trierem, de novem vero loricam et cassidem fieri, et per totam Angliam naves intente praecipit fabricari.” 1 Florentii Wigorniensis Monachi, _Chronicon ex Chronicis_, 160. 1 Freeman, _Norman Conquest_, 647, note LL., cites 3 _Codex Diplomaticus_, 351, to show that before 1008 a levy of ships was not unknown. Archbishops Aelfric upon his death gave to the people of Wiltshire and Kent a ship. Wiltshire is an inland county. It is justifiable, then, to believe that “per totam Angliam” may be taken literally, and that Ethelred really exacted a ship from every 310 hides throughout England. [355] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 105-108. [356] Taswell-Langmead, _Eng. Const. Hist._ 443; Trevelyan, _England Under the Stuarts_, 163. [357] Clarendon, _History of the Rebellion_, i, 136. [358] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 108, note 2. [359] Gardiner, _Const. Doc._ 108, 109. [360] 2 Hallam, _Const. Hist. Eng._ 23. [361] Mr. St. John did not enter into a consideration of the legality of the modern impositions of the outports, levied by authority of the Crown.