Under
Henry VI
the council
increases in
power.
It acts as
a council
of regency.
The parlia-
ment loses
its connex-
ion with
council
after x437.
Council
holds exeou∙
tive power
during one
of the York
regencies.
a56 Constitutional History. [chap.
fluous ; but the minority of Henry VI gave the council at once
a commanding position in the government. In the first year
of his reign it was constituted, not by a mere nomination, but
by a solemn act of the parliament ; the king, at the request of
the commons and by the advice and assent of the lords, elected
certain persons of state as well spiritual as temporal to be
counsellors assisting in government1. This council consisted
of the protector and the duke of Exeter, five bishops, five earls,
two barons, and three knights ; a few names were added in
1423, and again in 14302. In addition to its ordinary func-
tions, this council was a real council of regency, and by no
means a mere consultative body in attendance on the protector.
It defined its own power in the statement that upon it during
the king’s minority devolved the exercise and execution of all
the powers of sovereignty3. It may therefore be regarded as
superseding or merging in its own higher functions the ordinary
powers of the continual council ; but it was really the same
body. The result, however, of the union of the two functions
seems to have been that, after Henry came of age and the
executive power of the council ceased, the parliament either
forgot or did not care to exercise any influence in the selection
of the council ; as early as 1437 the king had begun to nomi-
nate absolutely4 ; it became again a mere instrument in the
hands of the king o⅝ the court, and was often in opposition
to the parliament or to the men by whom the parliament was
led. The removal of the old council then became a measure
of reform, and Henry’s promise to nominate a sad and grave
council was one of the means by which he proposed to
strengthen a general pacification5. During the protectorship
of the duke of York, the council again assumed the character
of a regency for a short time, the king, although he admitted
1 Kot. Parl. iv. 175. 2 lb. iv. 201, 344. 3 Above, p. 108.
4 Nov. 12, 1437, at S. John’s, Clerkenwell, the lords of the council were
reappointed and new names added ; ‘ and the king wol that after the
fourme as power was gyve by King Henry IV to his counsaillers, that the
kyng’s counsaillers that now be, that they so do, after a cedu1e that was
rade there the which passed in the parlement tyme of K. H. the iiij ; ’
Ordinances, &c. v. 71 ; Rot. Parl. v. 438.
5 See above, p. 163 ; Rot. Parl. v. 240.
xvπι.] The Priry Council. 257
the authority of a protector, preferring to lodge the executive
power in the council1. No thorough reconstitution of the
council was however made during the reign, and to the last
it contained only the great lords who were on Henry’s side,
with the great officers of state and other nominees of the court.
Edward IV, following perhaps the advice of Sir John Eor-Changein
σ ɪ ɪ 1 . π . the charac-
tescue, or the plan adopted by Michael de la role under ter of eouɪɪ-
Hichard H, mingled with the baronial element in the council Edward ɪv
a number of new men on whom he could personally ιely, and Tudors,
who were in close connexion with the Wydvilles. It may
be questioned whether the position which the privy council
henceforth occupied was directly the result of an arbitrary
policy on the paɪt of the crown, or of the weakness of the
parliament ; but, however it gained that position, it retained
it during the Tudor period, and became under Henry VII
and Henry VIII an irresponsible committee of government,
through the agency of which the constitutional changes of
that period were forced on the nation, were retarded or
accelerated.
Not content with securing such a public nomination of the Parliament
privy council as gave the estates a practical veto on the JSTon
appointment of unpopular members, the parliament attempted, and reg”-'1
by the imposition of oaths or rules of proceeding and by regu- wagesof
Iating the payments made to the councillors, to retain a control councιu°rs∙
of their behaviour. In 1406 the commons prayed that the Paymentsto
lords of the council might be reasonably rewarded for their
labour and diligence 2 ; in 1410 the prince of Wales, for himself
and his fellow-councillors, prayed to be excused from serving
unless means could be found for enabling them to support the
necessary charges3; in the minority of Henry VI the salaries of
the members were very high ; in 1431 they were Securedtothem
according to a regular tariff4; and in 1433 the self-denying
policy of the duke of Bedford enabled him, by obtaining a
ɪ Above, p. 179; Kot. Part. v. 289, 290.
a Kot. Part. iii. 577. 3 lb. iii. 634.
4 lb. iv. 374. The archbishops and cardinal Beaufort had 300 marks;
other bishops 200; the treasurer 200; earls 200; barons and bannerets
£100; esquires £40. Cf. Ordinances, iɪɪ. 155-158, 202, 222, 266.
VOL. III. S