THE ANCIENT LANDMARK SKREEN or BANK BETWIXT The Prince or Supreme Magistrate, and the People of ENGLAND.  
BY THE Right of Inheritance which the NOBILITY & BARONAGE of ENGLAND have TO Sat in the House of PEERS IN PARLIAMENT.  
March. 12th LONDON, Printed by T. W. for Daniel White at the seven Stars in S. Paul's Churchyard, 1659.   

The ancient Landmark, Skreen, or Bank, betwixt the Prince, or Supreme Magistrate and the People etc.  
IT should be confessed by all that have but Travailed the ordinary Roads and paths of the book of God, and Scripture, that the Princes and heads of the Tribes of the people of Israel, in and after the Theocraty, or time of Gods own government of them, and in the Reign of the Kings, which he extraordinarily blessed and appointed over them, were of their greatest and most eminent Counsels and Sanhedrims.  
And not to be denied by those that have been acquainted with the Greek and Roman Histories.  
That the Patricii of the one, and the wise and great men of the other, were always made use of, and preferred in their Senates and Counsels, as men of the greatest understanding and interest, attended by their own virtues, education, and fitness, as well as those of their Ancestors.  
In Imitation and conformity whereof, and that conduct of reason and success which had encouraged all the Civilised people and Nations of the earth, rather to follow than desert such universally approved experiments.  
Our no foolish English progenitors, did not think they should do themselves or posterity any harm to tread the same steps, and embrace and make much of the Truth in the old paths thereof.  
And hence it was, that our over-warlike, and too much busied forefathers the Saxons, in their Civil Wars and Discords, took it to be neither dangerous nor useless, to make their Princes and Ealdermen, (which were the same with our Earls and Barons, the later being the Genus, 
I. Brampton hist Joruall.  or foundation of the former) of their Counsels and Parliaments; as King Ina did in Anno 711. (Now above nine hundred 40 and 7 years ago and then not remarqued for any Novelty,) 
Selden Tit. Honour Ca 5 sect. 6, 632. Bede lib. 2. Ca 13.  in a Parliament or place where he made his Laws.  
That Edwin, King of Northumberland, when he was persuaded to become a Christian, consulted, cum principibus & Consiliariis suis, or with his Ealdormen, as King Alfred expounded those words in Bede.  
And Cynewlf, King of west-Saxe, 
Selden Tit. Honour 701.  cum Caterva Satraparum, with the whole body of his Nobility.  
That William the Conqueror. 
Math. Paris. 75.  Consilio Baronum suorum, restored our English Laws.  
And Henry the first at his Coronation (saith Matthew Paris) made Laws Consilio Baronum suorum.  
For Comes, or the title of an Earl, derived or branched out of the Baronage, could not be so separate from the person of the Prince, in the interpretation of the word, Ex vi termini, or the legal Custom, or appropriation of it, as not to be with the King, or supreme Magistrate, in his great and public Counsels or Parliaments.  
And by the longest Prescription, or use of any Laws or good Customs, which we now have in the English Nation, from long before the Conquest, without any interruption, until the year 1648. The Nobility and Barons of England may claim and aught to enjoy it, as well as any other part of the people do all or any part of their inheritances which they would be unwilling not to have called their own, or not to be justified by an immemorial Prescription.  
And therefore in the Grants and Letters Patents of Earls, of long or great Antiquity; as in that of the Earldom of Hereford to Miles de Glocestria, by Maud the Empress; She grants it with all liberties and customs as honourably as any former Earl of that County enjoyed it.  
And to Awbrey de Vere, of the Earldom of Oxford, by King Henry the Second, now above 500 years past it was Ita liberé & honorificè, as freely and honourably, sicut aliquis Comitum Angliae, as any of the Earls of England most honourably enjoyed it.  
And if any would know, whether the privilege to them and their Heirs of sitting in Parliament, 
Selden Tit. Honour Cap. 5 704.  were one of their just inheritable liberties and Birthrights, the most learned Selden will tell them.  
That in the great Parliament of Clarendon, held by King Henry the second in the Tenth year of his Reign presentibus Comitibus & proceribus Angliae. The Earls and Nobility being present.  
The Avitae consuetudines, ancient Customs of their Forefathers, & noble Progenitors, were, among other Customs, Recognized to be that Debent interesse Judiciis Curiae Regis they ought to sit in Parliament.  
And notes thereupon that to be a Baron, and to have right to sit with the rest of the Barons in Counsels or Courts of Judgement were according to the Laws of that time Synonimies.  
And were not otherwise taken also to be in the succeeding ages, when as in the 23 year of Henry the second, as Hoveden reports, the determination of the controversy between Alphonso, King of Castille, and Sanche King of Navarr, submitted to the Arbitrement of that English King, was determined Habitocum Comitibus & Baronibus cum deliberatione consilii. by mature advice of his Earls and Barons.  
In the sixth year of King john, certain Laws were made communi consilio Baronum suorum, by a Common Counsel, or Parliament held at Winchester.  
William de Breose, a Baron, 
Math. Puis 303. edit. Londini.  being in that Kings reign demanded by the King to have his Children delivered for Hostages, answered (as the Monk of St. Alban relates it,) Si ipsum in aliquo offendi, paratus sum & ero domino meo & sine obsidibus satisfacere secundum Judicium Curiae suae & Baronum parium meorum certo mihi assignato die & loco; I am & shall be ready to satisfy the King my Lord without Hostages, if in any thing I have offended him, according to the Judgement of his Court and the Barons my Peers, if he shall assign me a certain day and place.  
And the Modus tenendi Parliamentum, (which cannot be denied but to have been exemplified under the great Seal of England, and sent by that King, into Ireland, where our English Laws than began to be planted) saith also expressly that omnes & singuli Comites & Barones summoniri & venire debent ad Parliamentum; All Earls and Barons ought to be summoned and come to Parliament.  
The restoration of Hugh de Vere, Earl of Oxford, to the Earldom of Oxford, and all his father's lands in 17. H. 3 by an investieture of Cinxit eum gladie comitatus Oxen. Girding him with the sword of the Earldom, did continue unto him his Peerage or Privilege of sitting in Parliament enjoyed by his Ancestors.  
After the battle of Evesham in 49. H. 3. the Earls, and Barons, and others, which stood against the King, being by act of Parliament in Anno 50. H. 3. disinherited, and the lands of many of them given away or sold, and the Dictum de Kenilworth in 51. H. 3. admitting them to a composition. Wake Hastings, Vescy, Grace, & Nevil, Barons, and Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford; and many other of the Nobility having compounded, did without any new grant of their Earldoms and Baronies, retain all their Parliament privileges.  
Andrew de Astely, the Son and Heir of Sir Thomas de Asteley, a Baron, slain at the Battle of Evesham, against the King was after his Father's deathin 49 H. 3. summoned, as a Baron to Parliament, in several Parliaments in the reign of King E. 1.  
16 Richard the 2. 
16 R. 2. Act. 15.  the King granting and restoring to Sir Aubrey de Vere, Uncle to Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland and Earl of Oxford in Parliament the Name, Title, Estate, and Honour, of Earl of Oxford, which was forfeited by the attainder of the said Duke, to hold to him and his heirs Males; caused him to be put as the words in the record thereof in French bears it, en son lieu ovesquè les Peers, in his place with his Peers.  
The claim in Parliament in xi. H. 6. 
Rot Parl. 11. R 2 m. 9 n. 32, 33, 34, 35.  of the Earl of Arundel to sit in Parliament where it was adjudged, that he and his Heirs, Earls of Arundel, should have, locum & sedem, the place of Earls of Arundel in Parliament as they had formerly.  
And the like adjudged in Parliament in the Controversy betwixt William Earl of Arundel, and the Earl of Devonshire in 27. H. 6. 
Parl. 27 H. 6. Art. 18.   
All which with the privilege granted of old unto the English Nobility to kill a Buck, or Deer, in any of the King's Forests and Chases, in their going to the Parliament, or to have no Wages for the Knights of the Shires which served in Parliament, to be levied of such of their Lands as were parcel of their Earldoms and Baronies.  
The Act of Parliament of 14. E. 3. cap. 5 for redressing in Parliament the delays in Judgements of other Courts, the Act of 31. H. 8. Cap, 10. giving the Earls and Barons their place of Antienty in the Parliament and all the Acts of Parliament which we have had from the first being and methodizing of our Laws from the British times, until the latter end of 1648.  
All our Restorations of ancient Barons and bringing them into Parliament by virtue of Entails of Earldoms and Baronies or otherwise, and all our Records and Journals of Parliament do plentifully show that they had an Inherirable right to sit in those Assemblies.  
And cannot be supposed to represent the Commons in Parliament (whose first summoning thither either, by H. 1. or H. 3, was merely by the King's writts or Summons and not by any Act or order of Parliament.)  
When as the Nobility were ever a distinct Estate by themselves, and the Commons did, after their calling or being summoned to Parliament, represent only for their own estate and degree, agitate their Votes and business apart; Elect their Knights of the Shire and Burgesses, to consent and represent for them, send Messages, and desire Conferences with the Lords; stand bare, whilst they sit covered, and receive Bills from them. And that the Commons were never authorized or accounted to represent for the Nobility by any Law, Record, Constitution, legal Custom, or Usage of this Nation as yet to be found, or extant; And that if the Lords had represented the Commons, or any other than themselves, the Commons would have taken more care of themselves than to have voted them dangerous or useless.  
And howsoever that the later Letters Patents, or creation of Earls, 
11. R. 2. pat. 3. m. 15. Pat. 23. H. 6. part. 2 m. 20.  Viscounts and Barons, as that of Sir John Beauchamp Baron of Kidderminster, the first which was created by Letters Patents in 11 R. 2. & of the Lord Beaumond, in 23. H. 6. and the succeeding ages, have been so punctual and careful as to grant in special words, to them and their Heirs Males, Sedem locum & vocem in Parliamentis & publicis Comitiis & Conciliis, Place, and Voice in Parliament.  
Yet it was as much before, the right of the Baronage of England & upon that account Ralph de Monthermer, who married Joan Countess of Gloucester, and divers others, in the right of their Wives, did sit in Parliament, aswell as enjoyed their Baronies.  
And it is to be remembered That Sir Edward Cook, in his Institutes, 
Cooks instit.  printed by Order of Parliament, saith, that the Lords and Peers, are to have their Writts or Summons, Ex debito Justitiae, 
Rushworth historical collections 240.  which was not denied the Earl of Bristol upon his petition for his Writs or Summons in 2 Carol.  
That in the beginning of our late civil and unhappy wars there was no small use made of an Argument to justify them, taken out of some words in Bracton (which as to the superiority of the house of Peers over the King, was something too much strained, and beyond his express words in other places) who was a Lord Chief Justice, 
Bracton lib. 2. Cap. 16.36.  in the reign of King Henry the third, that Rex hahet superiorem Deum, Legem, per quam factus est Rex & Curiam, seilicet Comites & Barones. The King hath his Superiors, God, the Law, and his Court of Earls and Barons.  
That the Parliament, 
Exact Collection 846.528.  in their Remonstrance of the state of the Kingdom, in December 1641. did allege that the Peers were the King's great Council.  
In which Parliament, they also declared but what can we the Commons do without conjunction of the house of Lords.  
That the triennial Parliament ordained in, Anno 1641. To be called once in every three years is to be holden by the King or Supreme Magistrate and Lords and Commons.  
And that the power thereby given to the people to make elections of the members and to assemble in Parliament if the King or Supreme Magistrate should omit or refuse to do it cannot be made use of or put in execution with any safety to the people (who by the Act of Parliament for a triennial Parliament are only allowed and authorized to do it) or any Laws which shall be made in such a Triennial Parliament be valid or binding.  
If it shall not be called and holden according to the directions of that Act of Parliament or pursue the very prescript form and allowance thereof.  
That it was likewise enacted by the assent of the Lords and Commons in that Parliament that that Parliament should not be dissolved or add jorned unless it should be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose, and that the house of Peers should not at any time dureing that Parliament be adjourned unless it be by themselves, and their own order, and that every thing, and things whatsoever done, or to be done for the adiournement proroguing, or dissolving of that Parliament contrary to the said Act should be utterly void and of none effect.  
That the house of Commons in their joint declaration with the Lords in Parliament 9 August 1642. 
Ibid. 502.  Did allege the house of Peers to be the hereditary Counsellors of the Kingdom.  
That Mr. Pym, in his Speech at Guild Hall London, 14 January 1642, printed by Order of Parliament, affirmed that the Lords had an hereditary interest in making Laws in this Kingdom.  
That the Natinall Covenant, and Oath, enjoined the maintenance and defence of the liberties & privileges of Parliament (the Judicative & better part whereof, was the House Peers) and the Rights and Liberties of the Nobility, and every one in their several callings Rights, Liberties and Privileges.  
That in April 1646. an Ordinance was made, and commanded to be read in Churches, that the Parliament intended the Commonwealth should be governed by King, or Supreme Magistrate, Lords, and Commons.  
That the general Council of the Officers of the Army, 
Prinn's plea for the Lords and house of Peers 45, 46.  in their Declaration made at Windsor, about January 1647. presented to the Lords House, by Sir Hardresse Waller, did declare the hereditary legal Right of the Lords, and their House in Parliament; and the Armies fixed resolution to uphold and maintain them and their Privileges with their Swords.  
And that the late Lord Protector, 
john Lilburnes letter to the Speaker printed in July 1648.  when he was Lieutenant General, protested to john Lilburne and others, at the Lord wharton's house, that upon his Conscience, in the sight of God, the Lords had as true a right to their Legislative and Jurisdictive power, as he had to the Coat on his Back; and that he and the Army, would support the same.  
That such of the Baronage of England, as in the late wars adhered to the King, did afterwards, by several Acts and orders of Parliament compound for it.  
And that such as have not acted against the Parliament since the 30 day of january 1648, or are not within the exceptions of the Act of Parliament for a general pardon and oblivion, made in the latter end of the year 1651, are included in that gener all pardon and Oblivion and to receive benefit by it.  
That the Act, in Anno 1648, which after the death of the King was made to take away the house and privilege of the Peers in Parliament, (who were neither cited if the house of Commons had been empowered thereunto,) nor so much as conferred with or heard, was only by a part of the house of Commons when many of their members were kept and forced away, and the remainder could not reach to the number of one hundred.  
That the house of Lords, then sitting, did never give consent to their dissolution, or unto that Act of that small remainder of the house of Commons to take away their Peerage but protested against it, as an Act made against the fundamental Laws, and invalid.  
That the Parliament in 1653, did declare that they would be as tender of the Rights and Properties of the people, as they would be of themselves and their posterities. 
13. July 1653   
That by the humble Petition and advice of the Parliament, presented to the late Lord Protector, and assented unto the 26. day of June, 1657 It was advised that the ancient and undoubted liberties & privileges of Parl. which are (there said to be) the birthright & Inheritance of the people, & wherein every man is interessed, be preserved and maintained. And that he would not break or interrupt the same, nor suffer them to be broken or interrupted.  
That the Goths, Vandals, and Tartars, the ruder sort of Nations (Savages only excepted) the Swedes, Polonians Hungarians, Bohemians, whose Kings are some of them wholly and others partly elective; the French, Spanish, Portuguez, Itallians, Germans, Scots, Irish, Russians, Persians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, and the major part of all the World, aswell Heathen as Christian, 
Prinns plea for the Lords and house of Peers 45.46.  as Mr. Prinne in a larger Plea for the Lords and House of Peers of England, hath learnedly, and abundantly proved, do admit their Nobility into all their Assemblies, conventions of Estate, Parliaments, Diets, and Counsels.  
And that now to exclude our English Nobility, whose Ancestors were so principally instrumental in the disclaiming and annulling the Resignation and Grant of the ill advised King John, 
Mat. Paris 237.245.270 Walsingham y podigm. Neus triae pat. 60.  to hold the Kingdoms of England and Ireland, in Fee farm of the Pope and his Chair, by the payment of 1000 Marks yearly Tribute Fought for and maintained our English Laws and Liberties, built and endowed, at their own charges, many of our Churches, procured many deafforrestations for the people and Charters and Liberties for many of their Cities, and Towns, gave and distributed out of their own Lands and Estates, great and large quantities of Land and Ground to be held in Common, and were the Donors of much of the Copy hold Lands of the Nation, which (being no Norman slavery, but a continuance of Charity and Benevolence, since turned into a Custom) were not long ago a fourth part if not half (the Commons, Wastes, and Forests excepted) of all the lands and real estates of the Nation & to render them thereby to be as no part of the People, but as mere Tituladoes, Shadows, or airy Notions, or as men of no value, interest, or concernment, would be a strange kind of gratitude, as well as an unparalleled violation of the Petition of Right, our no less than thirty times confirmed Magna Charta, and the common Justice of the World; who by the Rule and example of God himself in the case of Adam, in the very dawning and Infancy of the World, was taught not to condemn any man, or Society, without a Citation, and hearing what they can allege or plead for themselves, And make this Nation which hitherto hath justly claimed and enjoyed the precedency of most of the Nations of the Earth, to be and appear in the eyes of the World, less than the Republic of Venice, who by their admission of their Clarissimo's and Nobility into their Senate are the more esteemed for it.  
And cause us in the not making use of or admitting our Nobility, in to our assemblies and Parliaments to be looked upon in that particular as a Nation having no Nobility, or as that Mountainous and beggarly people the Swissers, who live and subsist only in being as mercenary and Hireling Soldiers to Neighbour Princes, and are in that respect so undervalved, as they are taken to be but as Fragments or broken pieces of a Commonwealth deformedly put together.  
That it will be against the nature and end of a Commonwealth, to have a principal estate and part of the people, put out of the lines of Communication of it, and be only admitted to the Taxes and burdens thereof.  
That many of no few of our Laws and Acts of Purliament yet unrepealed and not altered, by any subiequent Act of Parliament, which do grant allow and confirm the rights and privileges of our English Nobility, (whose Ancestors have not only in one but many generations been the grand and stout Assertors, and Maintainers, of our Magna Charta, and Laws and liberties of England, when the Common people could not do it) are included in these Laws and liberties which the now Lord Protector hath lately sworn to observe and keep.  
That two of the Ten Commandments given by the mouth of Almighty God himself in Mount Sinai with thunder and Lightnings▪ when the Mount shaken for the dread and Majesty thereof twice afterwards written in Tables of Stone by his own hand and many other of his precepts repeated in his book and holy writ do command the preservation of every man's property.  
And that the care of the rights, liberties, and properties of the Peers, and Nobility of England, which neither were, nor are, nor can be proved, to be inconsistent with the rights, liberties, and properties of the other part of the people ought to be very much incumbent upon the hearts, and spirits of the members of this Parliament, who come thither under an oath, (which the Parliaments of the former ages sufficiently careful of the rights, and liberties, not only of a part but of all the people) were not ordered to take) to uphold and maintain the true reformed Protestant Religion in the purity thereof as it is contained in the old, and new testament (which certainly enjoins the preservation of every man's property) and as members of Parliament to endeavour as much as in them lieth the preservation of the rights, and liberties, of the people.   
FINIS