The Difference between an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy

Powe~ 2ndinsobordiofof ready money payments, whereby a saving of twenty ortwenty-five per cent. on the ordinary expenditure may beeffected '.Another main cause of the paralysis of the governmentwas the overgrown power and insubordination of the nobles.thenobles. ' The two cankers of the time were the total corruption ofthe Church, and the utter lawlessness of the aristocracy 2.'The condition of the English Church and the policy andrelations of the Lancastrian kings towards it are subjcctswhich, however interesting, cannot be discussed here. Theydid not come within the scope of Fortescue's writings, andif they had, his orthodoxy and optimism would probablyhave made him averse to discussing them. But the reductionof the power and influence of the nobles is one ofthe chief objects which he has in view, arid is the end towhich most of his reforms are directed. The danger tothe crown from 'over-mighty subjects' is one that is neverabsent from his mind. This therefore is a question whichmust be carefully discussed.Or~gil~ of For the origin of the evil, in the form in which ittlie e\ilEd- appears during our period, we must go back to the timeward 111. of Edward 111. The evils of the older feudalism had beensternly repressed by William I and Henry I. Henry I1had excluded feudal principles from the framework of thegovernment. Edward I had eliminated them from theworking of the constitution. The reign of Edward I1 isa period of transition during which the lords tried for amoment to recover the ground which they had lost; butthe Despencers met then1 by a combination of the Crownand Commons, and for the first time placed upon theStatute Book a declaration of the principles of parlia-mentary government. The long reign of Edward I11completed the work which the Despencers, from whatevermotives, had begun ; and the Commons steadily won theirway to a legal equality with the elder estate of the' See Chaps. vi-xi, xiv, xix, xx, tion, p. lviii.below, and the notes thereto . See below, Introduction, PartRogers' Gascoigne, Introduc- I I I.baronagc The latter could no longer dream of monopolizingthe government as they had attempted to do under Henry111.The Commons might be led, might be influenced,they could not be ignored. But though the great lordscould not hope for a de jzr!~e monopoly of power, theirinfluence de fact0 was still enormous. And it increasedullder Edward 111, largely owing to the effects of theFrench wars. The old feudal system of military service Change inbeing to a'great extent obsolete, and being besides wholly the of mil~tnry sqsteluunsuited to the carrying on of a prolonged foreign war, service.Edward I11 introduced a new method of raising forces,whereby the Crown contracted, or, as it was called, indentedwith lords and others for the supply of a certainnumber of men at a fixed rate of pay. Thus not only did Itsresults.the lords make profits, often very large, out of theircontracts with the government, and enrich themselveswith prisoners and plunder while the war lasted ; but whenthe war was over, they returned to Eng!and at the headof bands of men accustomed to obey their orders, incapacitatedby long warfare for the pursuits of settled andpeaceful life, and ready to follow their late masters on anyturbulent enterprise. These considerations will largelyaccount for the ease with which under Richard 11 a combinationof a few powerful nobles was able to overbear the -might of the Crown. The reign of Edward 111 was more- Pseudooverthe period of that pseudo-chivalry, which, under agarb of external splendour and a factitious code of honour, feudal~sm.failed to conceal its ingrained lust and cruelty, and itsreckless contempt for the rights and feelings of all whowere not admitted within the charmed circle; and it sawthe beginning of that bastard feudalism, which, in place ofthe primitive relation of a lord to his tenants, surroundedthe great man with a horde of retainers, who wore hislivery and fought his battles, and were, in the most literalSense of the words, in the law courts and elsewhere,' Addicti jurare in verba magistri ; 'while he in turn maintained their quarrels and shielded their