The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part B.: From Henry III. to Richard III. — David Hume — John Shaqi
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part B.: From Henry III. to Richard III.
David Hume · en
* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 133, 134. Walsing. p. 298, 299,
300. etc. Knyghtor., p. 2671.
** I Richard, II. chap. 7
This preamble contains a true picture of the state of the kingdom. The
laws had been so feebly executed, even during the long, active, and
vigilant reign of Edward III., that no subject could trust to their
protection. Men openly associated themselves, under the patronage of
some great baron, for their mutual defence. They wore public badges, by
which their confederacy was distinguished. They supported each other
in all quarrels, iniquities, extortions, murders, robberies, and other
crimes. Their chief was more their sovereign than the king himself; and
their own band was more connected with them than their country. Hence
the perpetual turbulence, disorders, factions, and civil wars of those
times: hence the small regard paid to a character, or the opinion of the
public: hence the large discretionary prerogatives of the crown, and the
danger which might have ensued from the too great limitation of them. If
the king had possessed no arbitrary powers, while all the nobles assumed
and exercised them, there must have ensued an absolute anarchy in the
state.
One great mischief attending these confederacies was, the extorting
from the king pardons for the most enormous crimes. The parliament
often endeavored, in the last reign, to deprive the prince of this
prerogative; but, in the present, they were content with an abridgment
of it. They enacted, that no pardon for rapes, or for murder from malice
prepense, should be valid, unless the crime were particularly specified
in it.[*] There were also some other circumstances required for passing
any pardon of this kind: an excellent law, but ill observed, like most
laws that thwart the manners of the people, and the prevailing customs
of the times.
* 13 Richard II. chap. 1