# An Essay Concerning Parliaments/Chapter 5

CHAP. V.
Be fore I proceed any further I muſt clear one Point. And that is, that we find the Author and Founder of our Yearly Folkmote mentioned in the Laws of Edward the Confeſſor, (which were Recited and Confirmed by K. William the Firſt) under the Title De Greve, Chap. 35. which may poſſibly leave a Suſpicion that this Yearly Folkmote of the Kalends of May was a Greve’s Court. Now what Court ſhould this be, belonging to a Greve, or any Count or Viſcount, or Preſident whatſoever, for Greve is an Ambiguous Word? It is not ​a Burghmote, for that is Three times a Year by the Saxon Laws. It is not a County Court, for that by Edward the Senior’s Laws, N. 11. was in theſe words. “Je Wille that ælc Gerefa hæbbe Gemot a ynib feower Wucan.” I will that each Greve have a Gemot at about Four Weeks. So that there were Twelve in the Year. It was not the Sheriffs Turn, or le Turne del Vicount, for that was twice a Year; twa Scirgemot on ger, by the Laws of King Edgar, cap. 5. it is not the Gemot for the View of Weapons or Arms, which every Freeman in England was charged with, and was bound to ſhew once every Year, and, as was wifely contrived, all in one Day throughout all England; but that Day was not in our Kalends of May, but the Morrow after Candlemaſs, Craſtine Purificationis B. M. And therefore I cannot for my Life make any thing elſe of an Univerſal Anniverſary Full Folkmote, which is but ſemel in Anno, ſcilicet in capite Kal. Maii, but a Stationary Parliament: Eſpecially conſidering who they were and what they did.
The next thing to be conſidered is the Author or Founder of this Ancient Conſtitution, which we have in the aforeſaid Chap. De Greve, Num. 35. amongſt the Laws of Good King Edward, “Hanc Legem Invenit Arthurus, qui quondam fuit ​Inclytiſſimus Rex Brytonum, & ità conſolidavit, & confœderavit regnum Britanniæ univerſum ſemper in unum.” This Law of the Anniverſary Folkmote Arthur Invented, who was heretefore the moſt Renowned King of the Brytons, and thereby he conſolidated, and confederated together the whole Realm of Britany for ever as One Man.
It is good to Honour the Founders of all Uſeful Conſtitutions; and I believe that K. Arthur was the Inventor of this as to this Realms becauſe theſe Laws of K. Edward ſay ſo: And ſo was Cadmus the Inventor of Letters in Greece, though we can trace them out of Phœnicia; and the Letters ſpeak for themſelves. For if Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth in one Place, and in the ſame Order it is Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta the other Place, then we are ſure there has been an Underſtanding and Communication. For it is impoſſible to be otherwiſe when the Alphabets are ſettled on both Sides, by being their Numeral Letters; as it was plainly in King David’s Time by the Octonaries of the 119th Pſalm as it ſtands in the middle of the Bible; and as it was in Homer’s Time in Greece; or elſe the Old Scholiaſts have deceived me, who ſay that Homer purpoſely couched the Number of all his Books in the firſt Word of his Illiads ΜΗ νιν ἀεισε ξεά. ​Which Numerals ſtand for 48. The Greeks likewiſe taught the Welch to tell Twenty, and I believe they taught the Romans too. Now by the ſame Rule, if there was a very Ancient Folkmete in the Neighbouring Kingdom of France upon every Kalends of May, then perhaps King Arthur borrowed from them; and it is good to look upon their Kalends, becauſe it is poſſible they may give Light to Ours.
The French Kalends of May lie thus in Radulphus de Diceto, a Famous Dean of Paul’s in King John’s time, whoſe Hiſtory was thought ſo Authentick, that the Engliſh Parliament, in Edward the Firſt’s time, Relied upon his Teſtimony, amongſt ſome others, in no leſs a Point than the Claim of the King of England, to the Supream Dominion of the Realm of Scotland. As to our preſent buſineſs he has theſe Words, Abbreviat. Chronicorum, pag. 439.
“Abhinc Francorum Regibus à ſolita fortitudine & ſcientia degenerantibus, regni potentia diſponebatur per Majores domus, Regibus ſolo nomine regnantibus; Quibus moris erat principari quidem ſecundum genus, & nil agere vel diſponere præterquam irrationabiliter edere & bibere domique morari, & Kal. Maii præſidere coram totâ gente & ſalutari, obſequia & dona ​accipere & rependere, & ſic ſecum uſque ad alium Maium permanere.”
I will render the Senſe of it into Engliſh as near as I can: However the Latin lies before every Man to Tranſlate it for himſelf. From henceforward the French Kings degenerating from the Valour and Learning which they uſed to have, the Power of the Kingdom was Adminiſtred by the Matters of the Palace, the Kings themſelves being upon the Matter only Titular; whoſe Cuſtom it was to come to the Crown indeed according to their Deſcent, and neither to Act nor Order any thing, but to Eat and Drink Unconſcionably and to live at Home, and upon the Kalends of May to Preſide in an Aſſembly of the whole Nation, and there to be Addreſſed, to receive their Allegiances, and Aids or Benevolences, and to Remercie them, and ſo to retire to the ſame Life again till another May came.
This French Kalends of May, is ſo much a Picture of Ours, that I know not which is the Copy, nor which the Original. Theirs was an Aſſembly of the whole Nation; ſo was Ours. Annual and Anniverſary; ſo was Ours. It was tota. Gens Kal. Maii, in France. Our Folkmote looks extreamly like it in thoſe two Strokes. Statutum eſt enim quod ibi debent populi omnes, & gentes Univerſæ ſingulis ​annis, ſemel in anno ſcilicet convenire, ſcilicet in capite Kal. Maii. For it was Appointed by Statute that all the People and Counties Univerſal ſhould meet together at the Folkmote each Year, namely, Once in the Year, namely, in the Beginnings of the Kalends of May. The King uſed to have fine Speeches made to him in France; ſo had we. They ſwore Allegiance to him; ſo did our Folk. They gave him Gifts (it was not New-Year’s tide) Aids, Benevolences, call them what you will; and our People at the fame time, as Sir H. Spelman ſaid above, Conſulted of Peace and War, which cannot be managed without Ways and Means of raiſing Money, which is the Sinews of War, as Laws are of Peace. The word rependere at laſt in the French Kalends looks ſo like our French form of the Royal Aſſent given to a Money Bill, le Roy Remercie ſes Loyals Sujects, that I knew not how to render the Word Rependere, any otherwiſe than I did, by the word Remercie.
I know that the Year 662. was below K. Arthur’s Time, but it appears that when the French Government was utterly ſpoiled in the Merovingian Family, as to the other Points, ſtill they retained the old Cuſtom of the Kalends of May; ſo that it was of much greater ſtanding.