CHAPTER XXIII. CHANCELLORS IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD IV. CHAP. XXIII. EDWARD IV. having been proclaimed king on the 5th of March, 1461, on the 10th of the same month the Great Seal was delivered, the second time, to George Neville, Bishop of 4 March, Exeter, who took the oaths as Chancellor.* He had been an 1461. George active leader in the tumultuary proceedings which took place Neville in the metropolis during the late crisis. Without calling a parliament, first by a great public meeting in St. John's Fields, and then by an assembly of bishops, peers, and other persons of distinction at Baynard's Castle, he had contrived to give a semblance of national consent to the change of dynasty. again Chancellor. ment. Chancel lor's speech on opening session. The new King, after the decisive battle of Towton, in which 36,000 Englishmen were computed to have fallen, but which firmly established his throne, having leisure to hold a parliament, it met at Westminster in November, and was opened Nov. 1461. in a notable oration by Lord Chancellor Neville, who took A parliafor his theme "Bonas facite vias;" but we are not informed whether he exhorted them to make provision for the repair of the highways, greatly neglected during the civil war, or to find out ways and means to restore the dilapidated finances of the country, or what other topics he dwelt upon. After a Speaker had been chosen by the Commons, who, being allowed, addressed the King, commending him for his extraordinary courage and conduct against his enemies,—the Chancellor read a long declaration of the King's title to the crown, to which was added a recapitulation of the tyrannous reign of Henry IV., and his heinous murdering of Richard II.† The required acts of attainder and restitution being passed Fœd. xi. 473. † 1 Parl. Hist. 419. XXIII. CHAP. against Lancastrians and in favour of Yorkists, the King, according to modern fashion, closed the session with a gracious speech, delivered by himself from the throne.* After his Majesty had ended his speech, the record tells us that "the Lord Chancellor stood up and declared, that since the whole business of this parliament was not yet concluded, and the approaching festival of Christmas would obstruct it, he therefore, by the King's command, prorogued the parliament to the 6th of May next ensuing. At the same time he told them of certain proclamations which the King had issued against badges, liveries, robberies, and murders, and which the Bishops, Lords, and Commons promised to obey."+ Acts against wearing piked shoes. Neville was made Archbishop of York, and continued to hold the office of Chancellor till the 8th of June, 1467; but I do not find any transaction of much consequence in which he was afterwards engaged. The parliaments called were chiefly employed in reforming the extravagant fashion prevailing among the people of adorning their feet by wearing pikes to their shoes, so long as to encumber them in their walking, unless tied up to the knee with chains of gold, silver, or silk. There was a great outcry against these enormities, and this appears to have operated as a diversion in favour of the Court of Chancery, which now enjoyed a long respite from parliamentary attack. Several statutes were passed, regulating the length of pikes of shoes, under very severe penalties; but the fame of reformers is generally short-lived, and I cannot affirm that the Lord Chancellor gained any distinction by bringing forward or supporting these measures. In 1463 the pleasing and novel task was assigned to Lord Chancellor Neville, of announcing to the Commons that, from the flourishing state of the royal revenue, the King released to them parcel of the grant of a former session. “James A little specimen of the language and style may be interesting. Stranways and ye that be comyn for the common of this my lond, for the true hertes and tender consideracions that ye have had unto the coronne of this reame, the which from us have been long time withholde." 1 Parl. Hist. 419. Parl. Hist. 422. CHAP. XXIII. For several months in the autumn of this year he was abroad, on an embassy to remonstrate against the countenance given to Lancastrians at foreign courts; and during Chancellor his absence the Great Seal was in the custody of Kirkham, abroad on the Master of the Rolls.* an embassy. On the 10th of April, 1464, the Chancellor being about to leave London for Newcastle on public business, the Great Seal was again intrusted to the Master of the Rolls, who was directed by writ of privy seal to keep it till the 14th of May, and on that day to deliver it to Richard Fryston and William Moreland, to be conveyed to the Chancellor. They accordingly delivered it back to the Chancellor at York, on his return to London. 1464. with Ne Things went on very smoothly for several years, till the March, quarrel of Edward IV. with the house of Neville, arising out Edward's of his marriage with the fair widow, the Lady Grey, while the rupture Earl of Warwick, by his authority, was employed in nego- villes. tiating an alliance between him and the Lady Bona of Savoy. The rupture was soon widened by the new Queen, who, regarding the Nevilles as her mortal enemies, was eager to depress them, and to aggrandise her own kindred. In consequence, George Neville was dismissed from the office of Lord Chancellor. On the 8th of June, 1467, the King abruptly demanded the Great Seal from him, and gave it to John de Audley to carry to the palace. The next day it was delivered to the Master of the Rolls, without any Chancellor over him, but with a declaration, "that he was not to use it except in the presence of the Earl of Essex, Lord Hastings, Sir John Fagge, and Sir John Scotte, or of one of them; and after each day's sealing, it was to be put into a bag, which was to be sealed with those who were present at the sealing, and the Master of the Rolls was every day, before night, to deliver the seal so enclosed to one of the persons above mentioned, and to receive it again the next morning, to be used in the manner here recited.† Rot. Cl. 4 Ed. 4. Rot. Cl. 7 Ed. 4. m. 12. It had not been unusual to impose such restrictions on persons holding the seal without being Chancellor, but the Chancellor always had the unlimited use of it, upon his responsibility to the King and to Parliament. Neville dismissed rom office of Chan cellor. CHAP. June 20. TON, Chan- Subsequent career of Ex-chancellor Neville. A. D. 1470. The ruling party had not determined who should be the new Chancellor when Neville was dismissed, and an interval of ten days elapsed before the choice was made-employed no doubt in intrigues among the Queen's friends, from whom he was to be selected. At last, on the 20th of June, it was announced that ROBERT STILLINGTON, Bishop of Bath and Wells, was appointed Chancellor, and the Great Seal was delivered to him.* But before entering on his history, we must take a final leave of Ex-chancellor Neville. He now harboured the deepest resentment against Edward, and entered into all the cabals of his brother the "King-maker," who was secretly leagued with Queen Margaret and the Lancastrians, and wished to unmake the king he had made. Both brothers, however, attempted to conceal their wishes and designs, and at times pretended great devotion for the reigning Sovereign. In 1469, Edward in a progress passing through York, was invited by the Archbishop, his Ex-chancellor, to a great feast at the archiepiscopal palace. He accepted the invitation; but as he sat at table he perceived symptoms which suddenly induced him to suspect that the Archbishop's retainers intended to seize his person, or to murder him. He abruptly left the entertainment, called for his guards, and retreated. When in the following year the civil war was openly renewed, and the Earl of Warwick, by one of the most sudden revolutions in history, was complete master of the kingdom, it is said that Edward was for a time in the custody of the Archbishop, who, however, used him with great respect, not restraining him from the diversions of hunting and walking abroad, by which means Edward made his escape, and soon A. D. 1471. after recovered his crown. Upon the counter-revolution, the Archbishop was surprised in his palace at Whitehall, and sent to the Tower; but on account of his sacred character was soon after set at liberty, although he had been repeatedly guilty of high treason, by imagining the King's death, and Being detected in new A. D. 1472. levying war against him in his realm. * Rot. Cl. 7 Ed. 4. m. 12. XXIII. of Robert Stillington. plots, about a year after his enlargement the King again CHAP. caused him to be arrested on a charge of high treason, seized his plate, money, and furniture, to the value of £20,000, and sent him over to Calais, then often used as a state prison. There he was kept in strict confinement till the year 1476, when on the score of his declining health he was liberated, and he died soon after. During the seven years he held the His death. Great Seal, I do not find any charge against him of partiality or corruption; and his sudden changes in politics, and the violence with which he acted against his opponents, must be considered rather as characteristic of the age in which he lived, than bringing any great reproach upon his personal character. Robert Stillington, his successor, had the rare merit Character of being always true to the party which he originally espoused. He appears to have been of humble origin, but he gained a great name at Oxford, where with much applause His origin. he took the degree of Doctor of Laws. He was a zealous legitimist, and on the succession of Edward IV. he was a special favourite with that Prince, who successively made him Archdeacon of Taunton, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and finally Lord Chancellor. He held this office for six years, with the exception of the few months when Edward was obliged to fly the kingdom, and the sceptre was again put into the feeble hand of Henry VI. He had been appointed during a session of parliament. This was brought to a close on the 5th of July, when it is stated, that having in the presence of the King, Lords, and Commons, first answered certain petitions from the lower House, he thanked them in the King's name for the Statute of Resumption which they had passed, told them that the King had provided for Calais, and had taken care for Ireland and Wales, and assured them that his Majesty desired there might be a due execution of the laws in all his dominions. After which, in the King's name, he prorogued the parliament.* At the opening of the following session, in May, 1468, Lord Chancellor Stillington, departing from the custom of deli * 1 Parl. Hist. 426. A.D. 1467. at proroga tion of parliament. His speech on opening next session. |