offending party was to be tried in the county next adjoining in England.
A.D. 1444-5,— In 1444, an Act (23 Henry 6, c. 4) against Welshmen, who were indicted for treasons and felonies, was passed, alleging that outlawed persons of Wales and the Marches came to slay, burn, rob, and do other offences in the County of Hereford; and directing that a hue and cry was to be raised against them by the officers of that County. In this Act it is also alleged that persons living in Wales and the Marches, so indicted and outlawed, came into the said County, to cities and burghs, to fairs and markets, sometimes by night, to there sell and buy merchandize and "tarry 2, 3, 4 days or more at their will and after return into their countries without execution of the law made upon them by the Sheriff of the said County." Fines were to be inflicted upon persons conversant with the hue and cry who did not assist in the arrest of such outlaws.
In the same year we find (see Rot. Parl., vol. v. pp. 104, 155) the English living in the English towns in Wales earnestly petitioning that the previous legislation, excluding Welshmen from bearing office in Wales, should be kept strictly in force.
A.D, 1446.—In 1446, all statutes against Welshmen were confirmed, and grants of privileges to welshmen in North Wales were made void.
A.D. 1448-9.—In 1448 (by 27 Henry 6, c. 4), the legislation of 1441 concerning "Welshmen who take away Englishmen" was extended until the next Parliament, and in 1449, by 28 Henry 6, c. 4, it was made a felony for persons in Wales and certain other districts to take away men and goods under colour of distress. This was to prevent the great assemblies of persons, riots, mayhems, and murders which were occasioned by such actions, and was not to prevent distresses which were lawful by the common law of England.
Towards the end of the fifteenth century, Wales and the
