Page:The English Reports v77 1907.pdf/401

Mare. All these and other speaking briefly in a vulgar manner (for loquendum ut vulgus)^[1] and not pleading (for sentiendum ut docti) are to be understood of the ligeance due by the people of England to the King; for no man will affirm, that England itself, taking it for the continent thereof, doth owe any [12 a] ligeance or faith, or that any faith or ligeance should be due to it: but it manifestly appeareth, that the ligeance or faith of the subject is proprium quarto modo to the King, omni soli et semper. And oftentimes in the reports of our book cases, and in Acts of Parliament also, the Crown or kingdom is taken for the King himself, as in Fitzh. Natur. Brev. fol. 5.^[2] Tenure in capite is a tenure of the Crown, and is a seignory in gross, that is of the person of the King^{[N 1]}: and so is 30 H. 8. Dyer fol. 44, 45. a tenure in chief, as of the Crown, is merely the tenure of the person of the King and therewith agreeth 28 H. 8. tit. Tenure 65. Br. The statute of 4 H. 5. cap. ultimo gave priors aliens, which were conventual to the King and his heirs, by which gift saith 34 H. 6. 34. the same were annexed to the Crown. And in the said Act of 25 Ed. 3. whereas it is said in the beginning, within the ligeance of England, it is twice afterwards said in the said Act within the ligeance of the King, and yet all one ligeance due to the King. So in 42 Ed. 3. fol. 2. where it is first said, the ligeance of England, it is afterwards in the same case called the ligeance of the King; wherein though they used several manner and phrases of speech, yet they intended one and the same ligeance. So in our usual commission of assise, of gaol delivery, of oyer and terminer, of the peace, &c. power is given to execute justice, secundum legem et consuetudinem regni nostri Angliæ; and yet Littleton, lib. 2. in his chapter of Villenage, fol. 43. in disabling of a man that is attainted in a præmunire saith, that the same is the King's law; and so doth the register in the writ of ad jura regia style the same.

The reasons and cause wherefore by the policy of the law the King is a body politic, are three, viz. 1. causa majestatis, 2. causa necessitatis, and 3. causa utilitatis. First, causa majestatis, the King cannot give or take but by matter of record for the dignity of his person. Secondly, causa necessitatis, as to avoid the attainder^[3] of him that hath right to the Crown, as it appeareth in 1 H. 7. 4. lest in the interim there should be an interregnum,^[4] which the law will not suffer. Also by force of this politic capacity, though the King be within age,^[5] yet may he make leases and other grants,^{[N 2]} and the same shall bind him; otherwise his revenue should decay, and the King should not be able to reward service, &c. Lastly, causa utilitatis, as when lands and possessions descend from his collateral ancestors, being subjects, as from the Earl [12 b] of March, &c. to the King, now is the King seised of the same in jure Coronæ, in his politic capacity; for which cause the same shall go with the Crown; and there, albeit Queen Elizabeth was of the half blood to Queen Mary, yet she in her body politic enjoyed all those fee-simple lands, as by the law she ought, and no collateral cousin of the whole blood to Queen Mary ought to have the same. And these are the causes wherefore by the policy of the law the King is made a body politic: so as for these special purposes the law make him a body politic, immortal and invisible, whereunto our liegance cannot appertain. But to conclude this point, our liegance is to our natural liege Sovereign, descended of the blood royal of the Kings of this realm. And thus much of this general part de ligeantiâ.

Now followeth the Second Part, De Legibus, wherein these parts were considered: first that the ligeance or faith of the subject is due unto the King by the law of nature secondly, that the law of nature is part of the law of England: thirdly, that