ward of the household, might be named in parliament, and declared
to the commons, as the king's sole counsellors, not removable before the
next parliament. They required also a general commission to be made out,
similar to that in the last session, giving powers to a certain number
of peers and other distinguished persons to inquire into the state of
the household, as well as into all receipts and expenses since the
king's accession. The former petition seems to have been passed
over;[146] but a commission as requested was made out to three prelates,
three earls, three bannerets, three knights, and three citizens.[147]
After guarding thus, as they conceived, against malversation, but in
effect rather protecting their posterity than themselves, the commons
prolonged the last imposition on wool and leather for another year.

It would be but repetition to make extracts from the rolls of the two
next years; we have still the same tale--demand of subsidy on one side,
remonstrance and endeavours at reformation on the other. After the
tremendous insurrection of the villeins in 1382 a parliament was
convened to advise about repealing the charters of general manumission,
extorted from the king by the pressure of circumstances. In this measure
all concurred; but the commons were not afraid to say that the late
risings had been provoked by the burthens which a prodigal court had
called for in the preceding session. Their language is unusually bold.
"It seemed to them, after full deliberation," they said, "that, unless
the administration of the kingdom were speedily reformed, the kingdom
itself would be utterly lost and ruined for ever, and therein their lord
the king, with all the peers and commons, which God forbid. For true it
is that there are such defects in the said administration, as well about
the king's person and his household as in his courts of justice; and by
grievous oppressions in the country through maintainers of suits, who
are, as it were, kings in the country, that right and law are come to
nothing, and the poor commons are from time to time so pillaged and
ruined; partly by the king's purveyors of the household, and others who
pay nothing for what they take, partly by the subsidies and tallages
raised upon them, and besides by the oppressive behaviour of the
servants of the king and other lords, and especially of the aforesaid
maintainers of suits, that they are reduced to greater poverty and
discomfort than ever