The Statutes of the Realm/Volume 1/Introduction/Chapter 4/Section 1

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Introduction, Chapter IV
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3908736The Statutes of the Realm, Volume I, Introduction, Chapter IV
— Introduction, Chapter IV, Section I1810the Record Commission

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Sect. I.

Of the Original Language of the Charters and Statutes.

The Language of the Charters and Statutes, from the Period of the earliest Charter now given, 1 Henry I. to the Beginning of the Reign of Henry VII. is Latin or French. From that Time it has been uniformly English. The Petitions or Bills on which the Statutes were founded, began to be generally in English early in the Reign of Hen. VI.

All the Charters of Liberties, and of the Forest, from 1 Hen. I. to 29 Edw. I. (with the Exception after mentioned,) are in Latin; but Translations of some of them into French, are found in various Collections. In D’Achery’s Spicilegium[1] there is a French Translation, as it is called by Blackstone, of the Charter of King John; for it is doubtful whether that Charter was ever promulgated in French in this Kingdom. Some early Manuscripts[2] contain French Translations of the Two Charters of 9 Hen. III, and of the Charters of Inspeximus and Confirmation in 25 and 28 Edward I, though these latter appear on the Statute and Charter Rolls in Latin. The Charter dated 5 Nov. 25 Edw. I,[3] is in French; as is also the Duplicate of that Charter dated 10 Oct. and entered on the Statute Roll 25 Edw. I.[4]

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The Statutes of Henry III. are almost entirely in Latin. Some Legislative Matters, not in the Printed Collections, are entered on the Patent Rolls in French.[5]

The Statutes of Edward I. are indiscriminately in Latin or French; though the former Language is most prevalent. But the Statute of Gloucester 6 Edward I. which on the Statute Roll is in French, appears in many contemporary Manuscripts in Latin. In several Manuscripts, particularly Register A. in the Chapter House at Westminster, this Statute is given at length both in Latin and French. On the other hand the Statute of Westminster the Second, 13 Edw. I. which is in Latin on the Roll, appears in many Manuscripts in French; and Chapter 34 of this latter Statute, as to Violence against Women, which on the Roll appears in French, is given, like the rest of the Statute, in Latin, in several Manuscripts[6]. The French Chapter, 49, as to Champerty by Justices, is omitted in the Tower Roll, and in many other Copies, which give the Statutes in Latin, but is found in the Copies which give the Statute in French.[7]

The Statutes of Edward II. are, like those of Edward I, indiscriminately in Latin or French; but the latter Language prevails more than in the Statutes of Edward I.

The Statutes of Edward III. are more generally in French than those of any preceding King: yet some few are in Latin. The Statutes of Richard II. are almost universally in French; those of the Sixth and Eighth Years are in Latin. The Statutes of Henry IV, with the Exception of Chapter 15 of the Statute 2 Hen. IV. which is in Latin, are entirely in French; as are those of Henry V, with the Exception of the short Statutes 5 and 7 Henry V. which appear in Latin.

The earliest Instance recorded of the Use of the English Language in any Parliamentary Proceeding, is in 36 Edw. III. The Stile of the Roll of that Year is in French as usual, but it is expressly stated that the Causes of summoning the Parliament were declared “en Englois;”[8] and the like Circumstance is noted in 37 and 38 Edw. III.[9] In the Fifth Year of Richard II,[10] the Chancellor is stated to have made ‘un bone collacion̄ en Engleys’ (introductory, as was then sometimes the Usage, to the Commencement of Business) though he made use of the common French form for opening the Parliament. A Petition from the “Folk of the Mercerye of London”, in the 10th Year of the same Reign[11], is in English; and it appears also, that in the 17th Year[12] the Earl of Arundel asked Pardon of the Duke of Lancaster by the Award of the King and Lords, in their Presence in Parliament, in a form of English Words. The Cession and Renunciation of the Crown by Richard II. is stated to have been read before the Estates of the Realm and the People in Westminster Hall, first in Latin and afterwards in English, but it is entered on the Parliament Roll only in Latin.[13] And the Challenge of the Crown by Henry IV. with his Thanks after the Allowance of his Title, in the same Assembly, are recorded in English; which is termed his maternal Tongue[14]. So also is the Speech of Sir William Thirnyng, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, to the late King Richard, announcing to him the Sentence of his Deposition, and the yielding up, on the Part of the People, of their Fealty and Allegiance. In the Sixth Year of the Reign of Henry IV.[15] an English Answer is given to a Petition of the Commons, touching a proposed Resumption of certain Grants of the Crown, to the Intent the King might the better live of his own. The English Language afterwards appears occasionally, through the Reigns of Hen. IV. and V.[16]

In the First and Second, and subsequent Years of Hen. VI. the Petitions or Bills, and in many Cases the Answers also, on which the Statutes were afterwards framed, are found frequently in English; but the Statutes are entered on the Roll in French or Latin. From the 23d Year of Hen. VI. these Petitions or Bills are almost universally in English, as is also sometimes the Form of the Royal Assent: But the Statute continued to be inrolled in French or Latin[17]. Sometimes Latin and French are used in the same Statute, as in 8 Hen. VI.; 27 Hen. VI.; and 39 Hen. VI. The last Statute wholly in Latin on Record is 33 Hen. VI.; the last portion of any Statute in Latin is 39 Hen. VI; Chapter 2.

The Statutes of Edward IV. are entirely in French. The Statutes of Richard III. are in many Manuscripts in French, in a complete Statute Form; and they were so printed in his Reign and that of his Successor. In the earlier English Editions a Translation was inserted, in the same Form: But in several Editions, since 1618, they have been printed in English, in a different Form, agreeing, so far as relates to the Acts printed, with the Inrollment in Chancery at the Chapel of the Rolls. The Petitions and Bills in Parliament, during these two Reigns, are all in English.

The Statutes of Hen. VII. have always, it is believed, been published in English; but there are Manuscripts containing the Statutes of the first Two Parliaments, in his First and Third Year, in French[18]. From the Fourth Year to the End of his Reign, and from thence to the present Time, they are universally in English.

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Attempts have been made by many learned Persons to explain this Variety of Languages in the earlier Periods of our Legislation; and some have referred the Preference of the one Language or of the other to the Operation of particular Causes.[19] Nothing, however, is known with Certainty on this Subject; and at the present Day it is utterly impossible to account, in each Instance, for the Appearance of the Statute in French or in Latin. It seems on the whole to be highly probable that for a long Period of Time, Charters, Statutes, and other Public Instruments were drawn up indiscriminately in French or Latin, and generally translated from one of those Languages into the other[20], before the Promulgation of them, which in many Instances appears to have been made at the same Time in both Languages.[21]

It is Matter of Curiosity to observe, that the Use of the French Language in Statutes was preserved rather longer in Ireland than in England. The Statute Roll of the Irish Parliament 8 Henry VII. preserved at the Rolls Office in Dublin, is in French; on the Statute Roll of the two next Parliaments of Ireland, 16 and 23 Hen. VII. the Introductory Paragraphs stating the holding of the Parliament, &c. are in Latin; after which follows an Act or Chapter in French, confirming the Liberties of the Church and the Land: and all the other Acts of the Session are in English.

  1. ↑ XII. 593. of the first Edition; III. 579 of the Paris Edition 1723.
  2. ↑ MS. Harl. No. 5326 and others.
  3. ↑ See page 37 of the Charters preceding the Statutes in this Volume.
  4. ↑ See page 123 of the Statutes in this Volume.
  5. ↑ See Rot. Pat. 43 Hen. III. m. 10; 48 Hen. III. m. 2, d; 53 Hen. III. m. 25, d.
  6. ↑ Lib. Custum. London; MSS. Harl. No. 79, 3824; MS. Reg. 20 A. VIII. in Mus. Brit.
  7. ↑ See Note at the End of Stat. Westm. 2, pa. 95 of the Statutes in this Volume.
  8. ↑ Rot. Parl. 36 Edw. III. m. 1. In this Year was made the Statute [36 E. III. c. 15.] that all Pleadings in the Courts shall be in English.
  9. ↑ Rot. Parl. 37 Edw. III. nu. 1: 38 Edw. III. nu. 1.
  10. ↑ Rot. Parl. 5 Ric. II. nu. 1, 2.
  11. ↑ Petitiones in Parl. 10 Ric. II. n Turr. Lond.
  12. ↑ Rot. Parl. 17 Ric. II. nu. 11.
  13. ↑ Rot. Parl. 1 Hen. IV. nu. 14.
  14. ↑ Rot. Parl. 1 Hen. IV. nu. 53, 56.
  15. ↑ Rot. Parl. 6 Hen. IV. nu. 20.
  16. ↑ See particularly Rot. Parl. 2 Hen. V. nu. 22.
  17. ↑ See Stat. 18 Hen. VI. c. 18, 19, as to Soldiers, and compare those Chapters with the Petitions in the Parliament Roll of that Year, nu. 62, 63, and with the Writ of Proclamation upon the Close Roll, 18 H. VI. m. 3, d. The Statute is in French, but the Petition is in English, and is accordingly so recited in the Proclamation Writ.
  18. ↑ Petyt Manuscript nu. 8. in the Inner Temple Library; and MS. Hatton 10. No. 4135, in the Bodleian Library. The First of these ends with the Statutes of 3 Hen. VII. in French, apparently as from some Statute Roll; or Copy thereof. In the latter, which ends with 11 Hen. VII. the Statutes of the Third Year are in French; but those of the Fourth and all the following Years are in English. The old Printed Editions of the Statutes 1 and 3 Hen. VII. in English, appear to be t:ken entirely from a Statute Roll; while in the modern Editions, some parts of the Statutes are manifestly taken from the Original Acts, or from a Parliament Roll or Inrollment in Chancery.
  19. ↑ See 2 Inst. 485, as to the Two Chapters of Stat. Westm. 2. which are in French, although the Body of the Statute is in Latin. Barrington in his Comments on the Statutum de Scaccario, remarks that when the Interests of the Clergy are particularly concerned, the Statute is in Latin: But on Examination, the correctness of this Remark may be doubted: See also N. Bacon’s Treatise on Government, Part I. Cap. 56. (pa. 101. 4to Edit. 1760.)
  20. ↑ See Luders’s Essay on the Use of the French Language, in our ancient Laws and Acts of State; Tract. VI. 1810; where it is suggested that many of the Latin Statutes were first made in French, and from thence translated into Latin.
  21. ↑ See the Entries of Stat. Glouc. 6 Edw. I. in Register A. preserved in the Chapter House Westminster, before mentioned in page xli.
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