The governance of England: otherwise called The difference between an absolute and a limited monarchy. A rev. text edited with introd., notes, and appendices by Charles Plummer.

synne is it to take from the pore man is meyte, is drinke, his clothynge, and all that he hath nede off. Wich werely doth the Ffrench kynge to mony a thowsande of his subiectes, as it is be fore openly declared. Wich thynge þough it be nowe colourid per jus regale, yet it is tyranne. Ffor, as Seynt Thomas saith, whan a kynge rulith his reaume only to his owne profite, and not to the good off is subiectes, he is a tyrant. Kynge Heroude reignid vppon þe Jues dominio regali; yet when he slowe the childeren off Israell, he was in that a tyrant, though the lawes seen, quod principi placuit, legis habet bigorem. Wherfore Acab, wich reigned vppon the childeren of Israell bi like lawe, and desired to haue hade Nabothe his subgectes vyne yerde, wolde not by that lawe take it ffrom hym, but proferid hym the value thereof. Ffor theys wordes seid to the pro|fete, predic eis jus regis, beth not ellis to say but, predic eis potestatem regis. Wher fore as ofte as such a kynge dothe any thynge ayenst the lawe of God, or ayenst þe lawe off nature, he dothe wronge, not with stondynge the said lawe declared by the prophete. And it is so, that the lawe off nature woll in this case, þat the kynge shulde do to his subgettes, has he wolde ben done to hym self, yff he were a subget; wich mey not be that he wolde be almost distroied as bith þe commons off Ffraunce. Wherfore, al be it that the Ffrench kynges reuenues ben by suche meanes moche gratter than be the revenues wich þe kynge owre souerayn lorde hath off vs, yet thai ben not goodly taken, and the myght of his reaume is nerehande distroyed ther by. By wich consideracion I wolde - nat that the kynges revenues of this reaume were made grette by any

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Title: The governance of England: otherwise called The difference between an absolute and a limited monarchy. A rev. text edited with introd., notes, and appendices by Charles Plummer.
Author: Fortescue, John, Sir, 1394?-1476?
Canvas: Page 117
Publication: Oxford,: Clarendon Press,; 1885.
Subject terms: Political science; Monarchy; Constitutional law -- Great Britain.

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Collection: Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse
Link to this Item: https://name.umdl.umich.edu/aew3422.0001.001
Link to this scan: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/aew3422.0001.001/141:6

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Full citation: "The governance of England: otherwise called The difference between an absolute and a limited monarchy. A rev. text edited with introd., notes, and appendices by Charles Plummer." In the digital collection Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/aew3422.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 2, 2025.

The governance of England: otherwise called The difference between an absolute and a limited monarchy. A rev. text edited with introd., notes, and appendices by Charles Plummer.

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