etitioning the king to confer the
dukedom of Norfolk on the earl marshal. vol. iv. p. 273.

[228] Rot. Parl. 1 H. VI. p. 189; 3 K. VI. p. 292; 8 H. VI. p. 343.

[229] vol. v. 18 H. VI. p. 17.

[230] 28 H. VI. p. 185.

[231] Rot. Parl. vol. iii. p. 430, 449.

[232] Rot. Parl. 28 H. VI. vol. v. p. 176.

[233] If this were to rest upon antiquity of precedent, one might be
produced that would challenge all competition. In the laws of Ethelbert,
the first Christian king of Kent, at the end of the sixth century, we
find this provision: "If the king call his people to him (i.e. in the
witenagemot), and any one does an injury to one of them, let him pay a
fine." Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxon. p. 2.

[234] Hatsell, vol. i. p. 12.

[235] Rot. Parl. 5 H. IV. p. 541.

[236] The clergy had got a little precedence in this. An act passed 8 H.
VI. c. 1, granting privilege from arrest for themselves and servants on
their way to convocation.

[237] Rot. Parl. vol. iv. p. 357.

[238] vol. v. p. 374.

[239] Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 239; Hatsell's Precedents, p. 29.

[240] Upon this subject the reader should have recourse to Hatsell's
Precedents, vol. i. chap. 1.

[241] Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 337; W. Worcester, p. 415. Mr. Hatsell seems
to have overlooked this case, for he mentions that of Strickland, in
1571, as the earliest instance of the crown's interference with freedom
of speech in parliament. vol. i. p. 85.

[242] This parliament sat at Gloucester.

[243] Rot. Parl. vol. iii. p. 611.

[244] A notion is entertained by many people, and not without the
authority of some very respectable names, that the king is one of the
three estates of the realm, the lords spiritual and temporal forming
together the second, as the commons in parliament do the third. This is
contradicted by the general tenor of our ancient records and law-books;
and indeed the analogy of other governments ought to have the greatest
weight, even if more reason for doubt appeared upon the face of our own
authorities. But the instances where the three estates are declared or
implied to be the nobility, clergy, and commons, or at least their
representatives in parliament, are too numerous for insertion. This land
standeth, says the Chancellor Stillington, in 7th Edward IV., by three
states, and above that one principal, that is to wit, lords spiritual,
lords temporal, and commons, and over that, state royal, as our
sovereign lord the king. Rot. Parl. vol. v.