De laudibus legum Angliæ writen by Sir Iohn Fortescue L. Ch. Iustice, and after L. Chancellor to K. Henry VI. Hereto are ioind the two Summes of Sir Ralph de Hengham L. Ch. Iustice to K. Edward I. commonly calld Hengham magna, and Hengham parua. Neuer before publisht. Notes both on Fortescue and Hengham are added

Men in times passed, excelling in power,

gredy of dignitie & glorie, did many times by plaine force subdue vnto them their neighbors y^e nations adioyning: & cōpelled thē to do them seruice & to o∣bey their cōmandements, which commandements afterward they decréed to be vnto those people very lawes. And by long suffe∣rāce of the same, the peo∣ple so subdued, being by their subduers defended from y^e iniuries of other, agreed and consented to liue vnder the dominiō of the same their subduers, thinking it better for thē to be vnder the empire of one man, which might be able to defend thē against other, then to bee in dan∣ger to bee oppressed of all such as would violently offer them any wrong.

And thus certaine king∣domes were begun, And those subduers thus ru∣ling the people vnto them subdued, tooke vpon them of ruling to bee called ru∣lers, which our language termeth kings, And their rule or dominion was na∣med onely royall or king∣ly. So Nemroth was the first that got vnto him∣self a Kingdome, And yet in the holy Scriptures he is not called a King, but a stout and mightie hun∣ter before the Lord: For like as a Hunter subdu∣eth wilde beastes liuing at their libertie: so did he bring men vnder his obe∣dience. So did Belus sub∣due the Assirians, & Ninns the most part of Asia. So also did the Romans v∣surpe the Empire of the

whole world, & thus al∣most were the kingdoms of all nations begunne. Wherefore y^e Lord, being displesed with y^e childrē of Israel requiring to haue a king, as thē al other na∣tions had, cōmanded the law regall to bee declared vnto thē by the Prophet. Which law regal was no other thing, but the plea∣sure of the king their go∣uernor, as in y^e 1. booke of the kings more fully it is cōtained. Now you vnder stand, as I suppose, most noble Prince, the forme & fashion of y^e beginning of those kingdomes, y^t be re∣gally possessed and ruled. Wherfore, now I wil as∣say to make plain to you, how & by what meanes y^e gouernmēt of y^e kingdom politique, tooke his first

entrance & beginning, to the end & intent, that whē you know the beginnings of them both, it may bee right easie for you there∣by to discerne the cause of the diuersitie, which in your questiō is conteined.