isbury and Warwick, fled the
kingdom upon the desertion of their troops, a parliament was summoned
at Coventry in 1460, by which they were all attainted. This parliament
seems to have been very irregularly constituted, and scarcely deserves
the name; insomuch, that an act passed in it, "that all such knights of
any county, as were returned by virtue of the king's letters, without
any other election, should be valid; and that no sheriff should, for
returning them, incur the penalty of the statute of Henry IV."[**] All
the acts of that parliament were afterwards reversed; "because it was
unlawfully summoned, and the knights and barons not duly chosen."[***]

* Statutes at large, 8 Henry VI. cap. 7. 10 Henry VI. cap.
2.

** Cotton, p. 664.

*** Statutes at large, 39 Henry VI. cap. 1

The parliaments in this reign, instead of relaxing their vigilance
against the usurpations of the court of Rome, endeavored to enforce the
former statutes enacted for that purpose. The commons petitioned, that
no foreigner should be capable of any church preferment, and that the
patron might be allowed to present anew upon the non-residence of any
incumbent:[*] but the king eluded these petitions. Pope Martin wrote
him a severe letter against the statute of provisors; which he calls
an abominable law, that would infallibly damn every one who observed
it.[**] The cardinal of Winchester was legate; and as he was also a kind
of prime minister, and immensely rich from the profits of his clerical
dignities, the parliament became jealous lest he should extend the papal
power; and they protested, that the cardinal should absent himself in
all affairs and councils of the king, whenever the pope or see of Rome
was touched upon.[***]

Permission was given by parliament to export corn when it was at low
prices; wheat at six shillings and eightpence a quarter, money of that
age; barley at three shillings and fourpence.[****] It appears from
these prices, that corn still remained at near half its present value;
though other commodities were much cheaper. The inland commerce of corn
was also opened in the eighteenth of the king, by allowing any collector
of the customs to grant a license of carrying it from one county to
another.[*****] The same year a kind of navigation act was proposed
with regard to all places within the Straits; but the king rejected
it.[******]

The first instance of debt contracted upon parliamentary securit