Probability
that the
lords and
commons
always de-
liberated
apart.
Different
usage in
Scotland. 4
Nxlmber
of the two
houses.
Ranks
among the
lords.
446 Constitutional History. [eɪɪʌp.
houses seems to rest, the theory of Prynne that the two never
deliberated, together is prima facie as tenable as that of Coke
that they did. If, to go a step further, we give due weight to
the influence of custom, and consider that, as soon as we have
any evidence at all, we find the estates deliberating apart, we
shall incline to the belief that they had done so from the
beginning ; or, in other words, that it was only in the presence
of the king, or to hear a message from him, or when called
together for special conferences, that the lords and commons
ever formed parts of one deliberative assembly. Their arrange-
ment in the two existing and historical chambers is another
point, but the further we look back, more traces of division
than of union seem to be discoverable.
The Scottish Estates, throughout their parliamentary history,
sat in one chamber and as one assembly ; but, important as are
the illustrations which may be drawn from Scottish consti-
tutional history as to the usage followed in England at the
moment that the sister kingdom adopted a particular practice,
the growth of parliamentary institutions in Scotland is so
different in character and so much later in time, that no in-
ference can be drawn from it here. Our evidence for the
division of the assemblies in England is almost, if not quite,
as early as the evidence for any proper parliament in the
northern kingdom.
427. Of the numbers and special qualifications of the persons
who composed what may by a slight anticipation be called the
house of lords, not much has now to be added to what has been
said in preceding chapters : and that little concerns points of
dignity and precedence more than matters of constitutional im-
portance. The house consisted of the lords spiritual and tem-
poral, the ‘ prelatz et autres grantz,’ and, more circumstantially,
contained the prince of Wales, the archbishops and bishops, the
abbots and priors of certain monasteries, the dukes, marquesses,
earls, viscounts, and barons. Of these titles some are much
more ancient than others, and all have some slight political
significance. They may be taken in the order given.
The highest rank after the king himself belonged to the
XX.]
The Prince of Wales.
447
prince of Wales; and throughout medieval EnglishhistoryTheprince
the prince of Wales is the only person who bears the territorial
title of prince. Of the native princes of Wales, who became
extinct shortly before the parliament took its permanent form,
none is recorded to have been summoned to a council of the
barons, although they were cited to do homage, and the last of
them, David, the brother of Llewelyn, was tried and con-
demned before the English baronage. Edward I created his
eldest son prince of Wales in 13011. Edward III never bore
the title; the Black Prince in 1343 was invested as prince
of Wales with a circlet, ring and rod : his son Richard, Henry
of Monmouth, and the three Edwards, sons of Henry VI,
Edward IV, and Richard III, bore the title, in each case by
special creation either in parliament or by charter immediately
reported to parliament. The eldest son of the king was like-
wise duke of Cornwall, a title which was created with that
special settlement. He was also created earl of Chester, a
dignity which since the accession of Henry IV was annexed
to the principality. Richard II raised the earldom of Chester
into the dignity of a principality to be held with Wales; but
the act was repealed by Henry IV2. Aquitaine was also con-
stituted a principality for the Black Prince, but, although he
was summoned to parliament by that designation, it can hardly
be regarded as an English title. The rank of prince however
is not the highest that has been borne by members of the
English peerage. John Balliol, as an English baron, but also Scottish
as king of Scotland, attended an English council in 1294 ; and parliament.
Edward Balliol, as king of Scotland, was summoned to the
parliaments of 1348 and 13493. The lordship of Man was
l On Feb. 7, 1301, the king granted to his son his lands in Wales and
the earldom of Chester; and on the loth of May he settled the lands on
him and his heirs, by the name of prince of Wales and earl of Chester ;
Lords’ Fifth Report, pp. 9-11. Edward I had himself held under his
father Chester and part of North Wales, Perfeddwlad, between the Dee
and Conway ; the son is to hold his lands by the same service as Edward I
had paid to Henry III.
The investiture of the Black Prince is described in the charter , per
sertum in capite et annulum in digito aureum ac virgaɪn argenteam ; ’
Lords’ Fifth Report, p. 44; cf. p. 126.
2 Lords’ Fifth Report, p. 120; Rot. Parl. iii. 353.
3 Lords’ Report, iv. 58, 5 77> 579∙