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Petition of Right (1628)
The Petition exhibited to his Majesty by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and
Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, concerning divers Rights and
Liberties of the Subjects, with the King’s Majesty’s royal answer thereunto in
full Parliament.
t o t h e k i n g ’ s m o s t e x c e l l e n t m a j e s t y,
Humbly show unto our Sovereign Lord the King, the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, and Commons in Parliament assembled, that whereas it is declared and enacted by a statute made in the time of the reign of King Edward I., commonly called Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo, that no tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the king or his heirs in this realm,
without the good will and assent of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other the freemen of the commonalty of this
realm; and by authority of Parliament holden in the five-and-twentieth
year of the reign of King Edward III., it is declared and enacted, that from
thenceforth no person shall be compelled to make any loans to the king
against his will, because such loans were against reason and the franchise
of the land; and by other laws of this realm it is provided, that none
should be charged by any charge or imposition, called a benevolence, nor
by such like charge; by which the statutes before mentioned, and other
the good laws and statutes of this realm, your subjects have inherited this
freedom, that they should not be compelled to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge not set by common consent, in Parliament:
II. Yet nevertheless of late divers commissions directed to sundry commissioners in several counties, with instructions, have issued; by means
whereof your people have been in divers places assembled, and required
to lend certain sums of money unto your Majesty, and many of them,
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