the king might
please to send among them, however they might allow them to assist in
their debates. But I am much more inclined to suppose that they were in
all respects on an equality with other peers during their actual
attendance in parliament. For,--1. They are summoned by the same writ as
the rest, and their names are confused among them in the lists; whereas
the judges and ordinary counsellors are called by a separate writ,
vobiscum et caeteris de consilio nostro, and their names are entered
after those of the peers.[312] 2. Some, who do not appear to have held
land-baronies, were constantly summoned from father to son, and thus
became hereditary lords of parliament through a sort of prescriptive
right, which probably was the foundation of extending the same privilege
afterwards to the descendants of all who had once been summoned. There
is no evidence that the family of Scrope, for example, which was eminent
under Edward III. and subsequent kings, and gave rise to two branches,
the lords of Bolton and Masham, inherited any territorial honour.[313]
3. It is very difficult to obtain any direct proof as to the right of
voting, because the rolls of parliament do not take notice of any
debates; but there happens to exist one remarkable passage in which the
suffrages of the lords are individually specified. In the first
parliament of Henry IV. they were requested by the earl of
Northumberland to declare what should be done with the late king
Richard. The lords then present agreed that he should be detained in
safe custody; and on account of the importance of this matter it seems
to have been thought necessary to enter their names upon the roll in
these words:--The names of the lords concurring in their answer to the
said question here follow; to wit, the archbishop of Canterbury and
fourteen other bishops; seven abbots; the prince of Wales, the duke of
York, and six earls; nineteen barons, styled thus--le Sire de Roos, or
le Sire de Grey de Ruthyn. Thus far the entry has nothing singular; but
then follow these nine names: Monsieur Henry Percy, Monsieur Richard
Scrop, le Sire Fitz-hugh, le Sire de Bergeveny, le Sire de Lomley, le
Baron de Greystock, le Baron de Hilton, Monsieur Thomas Erpyngham,
chamberlayn, Monsieur Mayhewe Gournay. Of these nine five were
undoubtedly barons, from whatever cause misplaced in order. Scrop was
summoned by writ; but his title of Monsieur, by which he is invariably
denominated, would of it