Freedom of Election Act 1275

by the English Parliament

STATUTUM WEST' PRIMUM. The Statute of WESTMINSTER, the First, Made at Westminster 25 die Aprilis, Anno 3 EDWARDI I. and Anno Dom. 1275.

Freedom of Election Act 1275

1275 (3 Edw. 1) C A P. V.

THESE be the Acts of King EDWARD, Son to King HENRY, made at Westminster at his first Parliament general after his Coronation, on the Mondayof Easter Utas, the third Year of his Reign, by his Council, and the Assent of Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Earls, Barons, and all the Commonalty of the Realm being thither summoned, because our Lord the King had great Zeal and Desire to redress the State of the Realm in such Things as required Amendment, for the common Profit of holy Church, and of the Realm: And because the State of^[1] the holy Church had been evil kept, and the Prelates and religious Persons of the Land grieved many ways, and the People otherwise intreated than they ought to be, and the Peace less kept, and the Laws less used, and the Offenders less punished than they ought to be, by reason where of the People of the Land feared the less to offend; the King hath ordained and established these Acts underwritten, which he intendeth to be necessary and profitable unto the whole Realm.

There shall be no Disturbance of Free Elections.

Elections shall be free.

Br. Amercement, 6, 13, 32, 35, 37. 2 Inst. 168.

AND because Elections ought to be free, the King commandeth upon great Forfeiture, that^[2] no Man by force of Arms,^[3] nor by Malice, or Menacing, shall disturb any to make free Election.

Note : this act is listed in the Chronological Table of Statutes as theFreedom of Election Act, 1275

1. For because the State of the holy Church, readbecause the State of his Kingdom and of the holy Church, &c.
2. For no Man, &c. read no great Man or other,&c.
3. Not in the Original. See 9 Ed. 2.stat. 1. c. 14. relating to Election of Dignities of the Church.