the king alone might give any livery or sign of company, and
the lords only livery of cloth to their servants and counsellors ¹;
in 1401 the prince of Wales was allowed the same privilege as
the king²; in 1411 the right was conceded to guilds and
fraternities founded for a good intent³ ; in 1429 further allow-
ances are made, livery of cloth is not forbidden to the lord
mayor and sheriffs of London, to the serjeants-at-law, or the
universities ; in time of war the lords may give liveries of
cloth and hats, hut such livery may not be assumed without
leave⁴; and in 1468 Edward IV confirmed the previous legisla-
tion on the point^r,.

Proofs of the abuse are not wanting; in 1403 the Percies
had given liveries to the rebels⁶ ; the permission to give livery
of cloth only rendered the offence more difficult of detection,
and the penalty on giving such livery beyond the prescribed
limits, ‘ the pain to make fine and ransom at the king’s will,’
was not sufficiently definite to be effective ; the statutes of
Henry VI and Edward IV direct a more distinct form of pro-
cess. Viewed as a social rather than a legal point, whether -as
a link between malefactors and their patrons, a distinctive
uniform of great households, a means of blunting the edge of
tlɪe law, or of perverting the administration of justice in the
courts—as an honorary distinction fraught with all the jealousies
of petty ambition, as an underhand way of enlisting bodies of
unscrupulous retainers, or as an invidious privilege exercised
by the lords under the shadow of law or in despite of law—
the custom of livery forms an important element among the
disruptive tendencies of the later middle ages. It resuscitated
the evils of the old feudal spirit in a form which did not
furnish even such security for order as was afforded in the
older feudal arrangement by the substantial guarantee found
in the tenure of land by the vassal under his lord. Livery and

¹ Stat. 1 Hen. TV, c. 7 ; Statutes iɪ. 113.

² Stat. 2 Hen. TV, c. 21 ; Statutes, ii. 129, 130.

³ Stat. 13 Hen. IV, c. 3; Statutes, ii. 167.

^, Stat. 8 Hen. VI, c. 4; Statutes, ii. 240, 241.

³ Stat. 8 Edw. IV. c. 2 ; Statutes, ɪi. 426, 428.

⁶ Rot. Parl. iii. 524.

XXI.]

Jiiaintenancc, apart or together, were signs of faction and op-
pression, and were two of tlɪe great sources of mischief, for the
correction of which the jurisdiction of the Star Chamber was
erected in the reign of Henry VII¹.

472. Somewhat akin to the practice of livery of servants was Fortmed
ɪ                    ^v                        houses of the

the usage of fortifying the manor-houses of the great men ; a great lord.-,
usage which went a long way towards making every rich man’s
dwelling-place a castle. The fortification or Crenellation of
these houses or castles could not be taken in hand ʌvithout the
royal licence : a matter, it must be supposed, of ancient prero-
gative, as it does not rest upon statute, and must be connected

with the more ancient legislation against adulterine castles. A Licences for
°                                                   _# Cienellation,

great number of the licences to crenellate or embattle dwelling-
houses are found among the national records from the reign of
Henry III onwards² ; in the majority of cases the licence is
granted to a baron or to some prelate or knight nearly ap-
proaching baronial rank ; a few to the magistrates of towns for
town walls. Between 1257 and 1273 HenryIII granted twenty
such licences ; on the rolls of Edward I appear 44 ; on those of
Edward II 58; the long reign of Edward III furnished 180

cases, and that of Richard II ς2. In a parliamentary petition Petitionon
the sιιbj ect⅛
of 13 71 the king was asked to establish by statute that every

man throughout England might make fort or fortress, walls,
and crenelled or embattled towers, at his own free will, and
that the burghers of towns might fortify their towns, notwith-
standing any statute made to the contrary. The king replied,
that the castles and fortresses might stand as they were, and
refused to allow the re-fortification of the towns³. Any such
measure would have been a mark of impolicy, and opposed to
the interest of both king and commons. From the accession
of Henry IV the number of licences diminishes ; only ten are
on the rolls of his reign, one on those of Henry V, five on those
of Henry VI, and three on those of Edward IV ; but it does

¹ .See Stat. 3 Hen. VII, c. ɪ : Lambarde, Archeion, pp. 183, 190.

- The list of licences from 1257 "^as printed by Mr. Parker in the first
volume of the Kew Series of the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1856, vol. i.
pp. 208 sq., and from it the numbers given in the text are taken.

³ Rot. Parl ii. 307.

<<   <   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   >   >>