nsent of parliament. It is replied to this petition, that "it is
notorious how in many parliaments the lords and commons had promised to
aid the king in his quarrel with their bodies and goods as far as was in
their power; wherefore the said lords, seeing the necessity in which the
king stood of having aid of men-at-arms, hobelers, and archers, before
his passage to recover his rights beyond sea, and to defend his realm of
England, ordained that such as had five pounds a year, or more, in land
on this side of Trent should furnish men-at-arms, hobelers, and archers,
according to the proportion of the land they held, to attend the king at
his cost; and some who would neither go themselves nor find others in
their stead were willing to give the king wherewithal he might provide
himself with some in their place. And thus the thing has been done, and
no otherwise. And the king wills that henceforth what has been thus done
in this necessity be not drawn into consequence or example."[106]

The commons were not abashed by these arbitrary pretensions; they knew
that by incessant remonstrances they should gain at least one essential
point, that of preventing the crown from claiming these usurpations as
uncontested prerogatives. The roll of parliament in the next two years,
the 21st and 22nd of Edw. III., is full of the same complaints on one
side, and the same allegations of necessity on the other.[107] In the
latter year the commons grant a subsidy, on condition that no illegal
levying of money should take place, with several other remedial
provisions; "and that these conditions should be entered on the roll of
parliament, as a matter of record, by which they may have remedy, if
anything should be attempted to the contrary in time to come." From this
year the complaints of extortion become rather less frequent; and soon
afterwards a statute was passed, "That no man shall be constrained to
find men-at-arms, hobelers, nor archers, other than those which hold by
such services, if it be not by common assent and grant made in
parliament."[108] Yet, even in the last year of Edward's reign, when the
boundaries of prerogative and the rights of parliament were better
ascertained, the king lays a sort of claim to impose charges upon his
subjects in cases of great necessity, and for the defence of his
kingdom.[109] But this more humble language indicates a change in the
spirit of government, which, after long fretting impatiently at the
cur