24 Constitutional History. [chap.
Petitions in
parliament.
Henry ob-
tains an
acknowledg-
ment of his
prerogative.
and tenth already granted to Richard was confirmed to Henry1.
The king rejected the proposal that, for fear of the plague, he
should not go abroad, and obtained the consent of the lords
that he should go in person against the Scots2. Time was
found for the passing of a statute of twenty clauses, and more
than sixty important petitions were heard and answered. Of
the legislative acts the most significant were those which
restricted the definition of treason to the points defined in the
statute of Edward III, and forbade appeals of treason to be
made in parliament ; another prohibited the delegation of the
powers of parliament to a committee like that abused to his
own destruction by Richard II3, It is in the treatment of
petitions that the king shows the most strength of will.
There were no doubt about him some counsellors who wished
for reconciliation and concord at any cost, and were content to
wipe out summarily all the sad history of the late reign. There
were others who had private as well as public wrongs to
avenge, and some to whom the opening of the new era seemed
to give an opportunity for urging at once fundamental changes.
Henry found that he must take his own line. He obtained
from the commons a declaration that he, like Richard, was
entitled to all the royal liberty that his predecessors had en-
joyed4, undertaking however not to follow the example of
Richard in overthrowing the constitution. He freely exercised
the right of rejecting petitions even when strongly urged by
the commons ; in some instances showing more policy than
equity. He had already discovered that he would be far from
a rich sovereign, and that the relations with France and
Scotland were likely to involve him immediately in a great
expenditure. Richard had thrown the whole finance of the
kingdom into confusion; and were Richard’s obligations to be
reviewed the confusion would be worse confounded. To the
petitions that the sums borrowed by Richard should be repaid,
1 Bot. Parl. iii. 425. A half tenth and fifteenth payable at the preceding
Michaelmas is not confirmed to Henry.
2 ɪb. iii. 427, 428, 434. The king himself spoke in full parliament on
the expedition to Scotland.
j lb. iii. 426, 434, 442. * lb. iii. 434.
XVIII.]
Parliament of 1399.
25
that the sums due for purveyances should be discharged, and Petitions,
that the acquittances which Ricliard had granted should be
revoked, he returned the same answer, le roi s’avisera ɪ ; but he
authorised a careful inquiry into the effects of Richard 2, and in
the case of the purveyances promised to take the advice of his
council and do what was reasonable. He refused to order the
repayment of the money paid as ransoms by the adherents of
Gloucester and Arundel. He had to refuse to submit to the Question
judgment of his council the great donations of land by which Uon.resump'
he had already provided for his servants, or to agree to a
general resumption of crown lands3. His last act in the par-
liament was to except from all the benefits of the national
pacification the estates of Scrope, Bussy, and Green, whom he
regarded as guilty of all the evil that had come upon the land :
yet aven here he would try to be just ; he would not lay hand
on the estates with which those culprits were enfeoffed to the
use of others, and he would do nothing that would endanger or
disgrace the venerable lord Ie Scrope of Boltou who had been
so faithful to his father and grandfather, and who was in no
way answerable for the sins of his unhappy son, the earl of
Wiltshire 4.
The convocation or provincial synod of Canterbury, which Henry’s
. 1 , dealings
sat contemporaneously with this parliament, made no grant of with ∞n-
money, but contented itself with drawing up articles directed in October
against the Lollards and the continual encroachments of the ɪ399'
royal courts5. Henry had dealt carefully with them, and as
early as the 7th of October had sent Northumberland to tell
them that he wanted no money, but prayers, promising to do
his best to suppress heresy. Although this assembly seems to
have been summoned by the chapter of Canterbury, as if in a
vacancy of the see, and although Boniface IX did on the 19th
°f October issue letters restoring Arundel to the primacy °,
’ Rot. Par. iii. 437, 438, 440. 3 lb. iii. 439.
5 lb∙ m∙ 433∙ 4 lb. iii. 453.
Ann. Henr. pp. 290, 291 ; Wilkins, Cone. iii. 238, sq.
th ^ilkins> c°nc∙ ɪɪɪ- 24b∙ ʌdaɪn °f Usb thus describes the position of
, β rival archbishops during the interval : ‘ Thomas et Rogerus, si fas est
cere> duo archiepiscopi in una ecclesia, quasi duo capita in uuo corpore,