Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/26

6 the feudal dues of the superior lords, the king the chief of them, are secured by the abolition of subinfeudation; as, in this act, they are secured by the limitation of ecclesiastical endowments."

No. IX., the Quia Emptores just mentioned, was passed by Edward I., in 1290, to prevent tenants from disposing of their holdings to others, sub-tenants, who felt themselves dependent on no one save the lord from whom they immediately held. Henceforth the feudal aids were to be paid directly to the lords in chief.

No. X. The Manner of holding Parliament. Stubbs describes this document as a " somewhat ideal description of the constitution of parliament in the middle of the fourteenth century." Its value consists in its undoubted antiquity, for it is found already in fourteenth century manuscripts. Its claim to be a relic of the times of the Conqueror seems to have been urged in answer to an inward craving for the sanction of long custom. Just so, many of the laws in the " Sachsenspiegel " are made to date back to Charlemagne.

No. XI., the Statute of Labourers, was issued after the great plague of the Black Death, which raged in Europe from 1347 to 1349. The same fields remained to be tilled, the same manual labour to be performed; but a large proportion of the labourers had died, and the rest could command what wages they pleased. Edward III., to stop this evil, issued this rather Draconian decree.