duke of Gloucester, then holding parliament as
guardian of England, that he would move the king and queen to return,
as speedily as might please them, in relief and comfort of the
commons;[217] the second, a request that their petitions might not be
sent to the king beyond sea, but altogether determined "within this
kingdom of England, during this parliament," and that this ordinance
might be of force in all future parliaments to be held in England.[218]
This prayer, to which the guardian declined to accede, evidently sprang
from the apprehensions, excited in their minds by the treaty of Troyes,
that England might become a province of the French crown, which led them
to obtain a renewal of the statute of Edward III., declaring the
independence of this kingdom.[219]

[Sidenote: Parliament consulted on all public affairs.]

It has been seen already that even Edward III. consulted his parliament
upon the expediency of negociations for peace, though at that time the
commons had not acquired boldness enough to tender their advice. In
Richard II.'s reign they answered to a similar proposition with a little
more confidence, that the dangers each way were so considerable they
dared not decide, though an honourable peace would be the greatest
comfort they could have, and concluded by hoping that the king would not
engage to do homage for Calais or the conquered country.[220] The
parliament of the tenth of his reign was expressly summoned in order to
advise concerning the king's intended expedition beyond sea--a great
council, which had previously been assembled at Oxford, having declared
their incompetence to consent to this measure without the advice of
parliament.[221] Yet a few years afterwards, on a similar reference, the
commons rather declined to give any opinion.[222] They confirmed the
league of Henry V. with the emperor Sigismund;[223] and the treaty of
Troyes, which was so fundamentally to change the situation of Henry and
his successors, obtained, as it evidently required, the sanction of both
houses of parliament.[224] These precedents conspiring with the weakness
of the executive government, in the minority of Henry VI., to fling an
increase of influence into the scale of the commons, they made their
concurrence necessary to all important business both of a foreign and
domestic nature. Thus commissioners were appointed to treat of the
deliverance of the king of Scots, the duchesses of Bedford and
Gloucester were ma