ned to give offence to his majesty, nor to interfere
with his household or attendants, knowing well that such things do not
belong to them, but to the king alone; but merely to draw his attention,
that he might act therein as should please him best. The king forgave
these pitiful suppliants; but Haxey was adjudged in parliament to suffer
death as a traitor. As, however, he was a clerk,[168] the archbishop of
Canterbury, at the head of the prelates, obtained of the king that his
life might be spared, and that they might have the custody of his
person; protesting that this was not claimed by way of right, but merely
of the king's grace.[169]

[Sidenote: Arbitrary measures of the king.]

This was an open defiance of parliament, and a declaration of arbitrary
power. For it would be impossible to contend that, after the repeated
instances of control over public expenditure by the commons since the
50th of Edward III., this principle was novel and unauthorized by the
constitution, or that the right of free speech demanded by them in every
parliament was not a real and indisputable privilege. The king, however,
was completely successful, and, having proved the feebleness of the
commons, fell next upon those he more dreaded. By a skilful piece of
treachery he seized the duke of Gloucester, and spread consternation
among all his party. A parliament was summoned, in which the only
struggle was to outdo the king's wishes, and thus to efface their former
transgressions.[170] Gloucester, who had been murdered at Calais, was
attainted after his death; Arundel was beheaded, his brother the
archbishop of Canterbury deposed and banished, Warwick and Cobham sent
beyond sea. The commission of the tenth, the proceedings in parliament
of the eleventh year of the king, were annulled. The answers of the
judges to the questions put at Nottingham, which had been punished with
death and exile, were pronounced by parliament to be just and legal. It
was declared high treason to procure the repeal of any judgment against
persons therein impeached. Their issue male were disabled from ever
sitting in parliament or holding place in council. These violent
ordinances, as if the precedent they were then overturning had not
shielded itself with the same sanction, were sworn to by parliament upon
the cross of Canterbury, and confirmed by a national oath, with the
penalty of excommunication denounced against its infringers. Of those
recorded to have bound