Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/15

 The Privy Council of the Tune of Richard II 5 the attention of Parliament was drawn to other things, the coun- cil was left as in other times, with the king as a self-controlling body. Even so early as this the king's preference for the counsel of courtiers rather than of his nobles was unfavorably observed.^ Again in the tenth year, stirred to action by the abuses of the government, Parliament confirmed the selection of a body " to be of his great and continual council", with a commission to reform and manage the government throughout.- In their petition the com- mons asked that this council last for a year and until the next en- suing Parliament, but the king consented that it should last for a year only.^ How this council was not permitted fairly to begin its term, but found itself thwarted and set aside by the king is too well known to repeat. In 1388 after the victory of the lords ap- pellant one more attempt was made to name a council in Parlia- ment;^ but its career also was interrupted when on May 3, 1389, the king, entering the council chamber, declared himself of age and removed certain of the councillors.^ After this no attempt was made again in this reign to appoint a council in Parliament. It was therefore a bold exaggeration when at the time of Richard's de- position in 1399 it was stated to have been a policy that the officers, justices, and others of the king's council should be chosen each year, and that this policy the king had violated.^ 4. It was another feature of the Parliamentary scheme that the councillors be regularly paid for their services. Miereas previously men of the council had received wages or annuities only in individ- ual cases and as signs of royal favor, it was now the intention that all should be paid, great men as well as small, in proportion to their rank and services. For the payment of councillors there were two methods, the one by yearly salaries, the other by daily wages. It was usual for the greater men to be paid salaries, while men of lower rank received daily wages. The granting of life annuities, which was a characteristic practice of Edward III., was for the present quite suspended. How systematically councillors now were paid is shown by the records of the exchequer. Thus in the first year they received money as follows : 'In 1384 one complains of the king consulting, not peers or great men of the realm, but his accustomed councillors, namely, two clerks of the chapel. Walsing- ham, Historia Anglicana, II. 113. ^Calendar of Patent Rolls, 10 Ric. II., 244: Statutes of the Realm, II. 40; Stubbs, op. cit., II. 499. 'Rot. Pari, III. 221. >lbid.. 246. ' Walsingham, op. cit., II. 181. 6 '■ Statutum erat, quod in singulis annis Ofiiciarii Regis, cum Justiciariis, et aliis de Consilio Regis. . . eligantur et nominarentur Domino Regi." Rot. Pari., III. 419.