Page:The English Reports v77 1907.pdf/398

mentum aliquod seu gravamen. Et si quid eis forisfact', injuriatum vel contra eos indebite attentatum fuerit, id eis sine dilatione corrigi, et ad statum debitum reduci faciatis, prout ad eos et quemlibet vestrum noveritis pertinere: penocellas super domibus suis in signum præsentis salvæ gardiæ nostræ (prout moris erit) facientes. In cujus, &c. per unum annum duratur'. T. &c.

[9 b] By all which it is manifest, that the protection and government of the King is general over all his dominions and kingdoms, as well in time of peace by justice, as in time of war by the sword, and that all be at his command, and under his obedience. Now seeing power and protection draweth ligeance, it followeth, that seeing the King's power, command, and protection extendeth out of England, that ligeance cannot be local, or confined within the bounds thereof. He that is abjured the realm, Qui abjurat regnum amittit regnum. sed non Regem, amittit patriam, sed non patrem patriæ: for notwithstanding the abjuration, he oweth the King his ligeance, and he remaineth within the King's protection; for the King may pardon and restore him to his country again. So seeing that ligeance is a quality of the mind, and not confined within any place; it followeth, that the plea that doth confine the ligeance of the plaintiff to the kingdom of Scotland, infra ligeantiam Regis regni sui Scotiæ, et extra ligeantiam Regis regni sui Angliæ, whereby the defendants do make one local ligeance for the natural subjects of England, and another local ligeance for the natural subjects of Scotland, is utterly insufficient, and against the nature and quality of natural lineage, as often it hath been said. And Coke, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, cited a ruled case out of Hingham's Reports, tempore E. 1. which in his argument he shewed in Court written in parchment, in an ancient hand of that time. Constance de N. brought a writ of ayel against Roger de Cobledike and others, named in the writ, and counted that from the seisin of Roger her grandfather it descended to Gilbert his son, and from Gilbert to Constance, as daughter and heir. Sutton dit, Sir, el ne doit este responde, pur ceo que el est Francois et nient de la ligeance ne a la foy Denglitterre, et demand judgement si el doit action aver: that is, she is not to be answered, for that she is a French woman, and not of the ligeance, nor of the faith of England, and demanded judgment, if she this action ought to have. Bereford (then Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas) by the rule of the Court disalloweth the plea, for that it was too short, in that it referred ligeance and faith to England, and not to the King: and thereupon Sutton saith as followeth: Sir, nous voilomous acerre que el ne est my de la ligeance Denglitterre, ne a la foy le Roy et demand jugement, et si vous agardes que el doit este responde, nous dirromus assets: that is, Sir, we will aver, that she is not of the ligeance of England, nor of the faith of the King, and demand judgment, &c.; [10 a] which latter words of the plea (nor of the faith of the King) referred faith to the King indefinitely and generally, and restrained not the same to England, and thereupon the plea was allowed for good, according to the rule of the Court: for the book saith, that afterward the plaintiff desired leave to depart from her writ. The rule of that case of Cobledike, did (as Coke, Chief Justice, said) over-rule this case of Calvin, in the very point now in question; for that the plea in this case doth not refer faith or ligeance to the King indefinitely and generally, but limiteth and restraineth faith and ligeance to the kingdom: Extra ligeantiam Regis regni sui Angliæ, out of the ligeance of the King of his kingdom of England; which afterwards the Lord Chancellor and the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, having copies of the said ancient report, affirmed in their arguments. So as this point was thus concluded, Quod ligeantia naturalis nullis claustris coercetur nullis metis refrænatur, nullis finibus premitur.

4 and 5. By that which hath been said, it appeareth, that this ligeance is due only to the King; so as therein the question is not now, cui, sed quomodo debetur. It is true, that the King hath two capacities in him: one a natural body, being descended of the blood Royal of the realm; and this body is of the creation of Almighty God, and is subject to death, infirmity, and such like; the other is a politic body^[1] or capacity, so called, because it is framed by the policy of man (and in 21 E. 4. 39. b. is called a mystical body) and in this capacity the King is esteemed to be immortal, invisible, not subject to death, infirmity, infancy, nonage, &c.^[2] Pl. Com. in the case of The