Commentaries on the Laws of England , Book II: Of the Rights of Things by Sir William Blackstone

Author:Sir William Blackstone [Blackstone, Sir William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Politikwissenschaft
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2017-07-26T22:00:00+00:00

Ref 1429

Camden, Britan. tit. Ordines. Spelman, Gloss. 191.

Ref 1430

2 Inst. 5.

Ref 1431

Britan. tit. Ordines.

Ref 1432

Bracton, l. 1, c. 8. Flet. l. 1, c. 5.

Ref 1433

2 Inst. 5.

Ref 1434

But this peer, if so he might be deemed, never sat in parliament, by reason that his creation was never recognised there. The experiment made to create him a peer without such assent failed, and it was not repeated; for the next patent-creation was of Sir John Cornwall, in whose patent occur these remarkable words:—“—ejusdem parliamenti de gratia sua speciali et ex certa scientia sua, ac de advisamento et consensu ducia Gloucester et cardinalis Winton ac cæterorum dominorum spiritualium et temporalium in parliamento.” Rot. Parl. 11 Hen. VI. p. 1, m. 16.—Chitty.

Ref 1435

2 Inst. 5, 6.

Ref 1436

At the time of the conquest, the temporal nobility consisted only of earls and barons; and, by whatever right the earls and the mitred clergy before that time might have attended the great council of the nation, it abundantly appears that they afterwards sat in the feudal parliament in the character of barons. It has been truly said that, for some time after the conquest, wealth was the only nobility, as there was little personal property at that time, and a right to a seat in parliament was entirely territorial, or depended upon the tenure of landed property. Ever since the conquest, it is true that all land is held either immediately or mediately of the king; that is, either of the king himself, or of a tenant of the king, or it might be after two or more subinfeudations. And it was also a general principle in the feudal system, that every tenant of land, or land-owner, had both a right and obligation to attend the court of his immediate superior. Hence every tenant in capite—i.e. the tenant of the king—was at the same time entitled and bound to attend the king’s court or parliament, being the great court baron of the nation.

It will not be necessary here to enlarge further upon the original principles of the feudal system, and upon the origin of peerage; but we will briefly abridge the account which Selden has given in the second part of his Titles of Honour, c. 5, beginning at the 17th section, being perhaps the clearest and most satisfactory that can be found. He divides the time from the conquest into three periods: 1. From the conquest to the latter end of the reign of king John. 2. From that time to the 11th of Richard II. 3. From that period to the time he is writing, which may now be extended to the present time. In the first period, all who held any quantity of land of the king had, without distinction, a right to be summoned to parliament; and, this right being confined solely to the king’s tenants, of consequence all the peers of parliament during that period sat by virtue of tenure and a writ of summons.

In the beginning of the second period,

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