Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/718

696 APPENDIX H present Parlement, y dist, "Vous, Mess' Prelatz, & Seignrs Temporelx, et vous mes compaignons les Chivalers & autres de la noble Coe d'Engleterre cy presentz, deivez entendre," &c.{') Here we have a man who had been summoned for nearly 20 years, now Lord Chancellor of England, separating himself from the Lords Temporal and proclaiming his equality with the Knights of the Shire. What, it may be asked, was the position at this time of men like de la Pole ? The answer would appear to be that men who were summoned to Parliament became for the time " Lords of Parliament," but not peers in the modern sense. As legislators who received a personal writ they sat, as one might say, "above the salt" — with the Dukes and Earls, but not of them. And they were " Lords of Parliament " as long as they received writs, but no longer; their writ gave no hereditary succession. We have reached a period, however, when, although fines were still imposed for non-attendance in Parliament, parliamentary privilege was valued; and at the same time we find titles being assumed. Reynold de Grey of Ruthyn, usually called Lord Grey of Ruthyn, assumed the style of Lord Hastings (and Wexford) after the death of John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, who died in I389;() and in 4 Hen. VI he made the follow- ing petition for a particular place in Parliament: To the right high and myghty Prynce Due of Bedford, and all ye Lordes of ys present Parlement. Louly besechith zou Reynald de Grey, Lord Hastynges, Weysford, and of Ruthyn, to remembre the Bille nou late I put to our soveyn Lord in this psent Parlement, for my place of Sete to me accustomed, the whiche I have at alle tymes pesybly used and occupied, bothe in Conseiles and in Parlements, into ye tyme yt nou late John Lord Talbot usurped, and wrongfully put me out, ^cC^) At about the same time — Oct. 6 Hen. VI — a remarkable petition for precedence in Parliament was made by Reynold West, usually called Lord de la Warr: "A Roy nostre souereign' seignur et a son' tressage counseill' en cest present parleament Supplie vostre treshumble liege Reynold' la Warre Chiualer q' come Roger iadys Sire la Warre Auncestre le dit Reynold' qi heire il est Cest assauoir pere Johan pere (Johan pere Roger pere) Johanne Mere le dit suppliant Ian de regn' le Roy Edward' primer puis le conquest vostre noble progenitour xxvij par brief de somonde d . . parleament . . . venoit a son' parleament a lors tenuz a Westm' le dit an xxvij et issint continuelement le dit Roger et sez heires Auncestres le dit suppliant en plusours ans . . . en temps de mesme nadgaires Roy come en temps de voz nobles progenitours Edward' le second' Edward' le tierce Richard' le second' Henry le quart Henry le (quint . . . en) lour propre persones ou par lour procuratours ont venuz as parleamentz des ditz nad- gaires Roys continuelement tanq' en cest present parleament a le quel vostre dit sup- pliant est venuz (en son' propre) persone par vostre brief et commandement Que please (') Rot. Part., vol. iii, p. 1490. (•>) This assumption, says J. H. Round, was due to an armorial decision in the Court of Chivalry in 1 4 10. {Studies in Peerage and Family History, pp. 446-7). (<=) Rot. Pari., vol. iv, p. 3120.