The ''Five Knights' case'' (1627) 3 How St Tr 1 (also Darnel's or Darnell's case) (K.B. 1627), is a case in
English law
English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures.
Principal elements of English law
Although the common law has, historically, be ...
, and now
United Kingdom constitutional law
The United Kingdom constitutional law concerns the governance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With the oldest continuous political system on Earth, the British constitution is not contained in a single code but princ ...
, fought by five knights (among them
Thomas Darnell) in 1627 against forced loans placed on them by
King Charles I in a
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
court.
Background
In 1626,
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
had
recalled Parliament to approve taxes for the
Anglo-Spanish War (1625–1630)
The Anglo–Spanish War was a war fought by Spain against the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Scotland and the United Provinces from 1625 to 1630. The conflict formed part of the Eighty Years' War.
Background
In 1622, Philip IV reigned i ...
. While supportive of the conflict,
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
first demanded an investigation into the conduct of the army commander, the
Duke of Buckingham
Duke of Buckingham held with Duke of Chandos, referring to Buckingham, is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There have also been earls and marquesses of Buckingham.
...
, notorious for inefficiency and extravagance. Charles refused to allow this and instead adopted a policy of "forced loans"; those who refused to pay would be imprisoned without trial, and if they continued to resist, sent before the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
.
![Randolph Crewe by Peter Lely](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Randolph_Crewe_by_Peter_Lely.jpg)
The
Chief Justice Sir
Randolph Crewe
Sir Ranulph (or Ralulphe, Randolph, or Randall) Crew(e) (1558 – 3 January 1646) was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King's Bench.
Early life and career
Ranulph Crewe was the second son of John Crew of Nantwich, who is said to hav ...
ruled this policy was illegal and the
judiciary
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
complied only after he was dismissed. Over 70 individuals were jailed for refusing to contribute, including
Sir Thomas Darnell,
Sir John Corbet, Sir
Walter Erle
Sir Walter Erle or Earle (22 November 1586 – 1 September 1665) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1648. He was a vigorous opponent of King Charles I in the Parliamentary c ...
, Sir
John Heveningham
Sir John Heveningham (c. 1577 – 17 June 1633) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1628 to 1629.
Life
Heveningham was the son of Sir Arthur Heveningham, of Heveningham, Suffolk and was baptised there on 26 March 1577. ...
and Sir Edmund Hampden, who submitted a joint petition for ''
habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
''. Approved on 3 November 1627, the court ordered the five be brought before them in order to clarify what law they had broken; it became known as Darnell's Case, although Darnell himself withdrew.
Judgment
The case was heard by Sir
Nicholas Hyde
Sir Nicholas Hyde (c. 1572 – 25 August 1631) was Lord Chief Justice of England.
Origins
Hyde was born at Wardour, in Wiltshire, a son of Lawrence Hyde (d. 1590) of West Hatch, Wiltshire, MP for Heytesbury in 1584, by his second wife Anne ...
, the new Lord Chief Justice, with the prosecution led by
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
Sir
Robert Heath
Sir Robert Heath (20 May 1575 – 30 August 1649) was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1625.
Early life
Heath was the son of Robert
Heath, attorney, and Anne Posyer. He was educated at Tunbridge ...
. The problem before the court was the defendants had been arrested but the warrants did not specify why; this was unsurprising, since Coke had previously ruled the loans themselves were illegal.
Heath claimed the
Royal Prerogative
The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in th ...
allowed Charles to take whatever action he considered necessary "in time of crisis" and thus he had no need to justify the detentions. The defence was led by
John Selden
John Selden (16 December 1584 – 30 November 1654) was an English jurist, a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath; John Milton hailed Selden in 1644 as "the chief of learned ...
, counsel for Edmund Hampden, a distinguished legal scholar who argued that 'without which we have nothing', or else jeopardize the ancient liberties of freeborn Englishmen: 'no man can be justly imprisoned by either of them
he king or the privy council without a cause of the commitment expressed in the return' and doing otherwise jeopardised the "ancient liberties of freeborn Englishmen".
Since the judges were unable to determine what law had been broken, they avoided the issue by denying
bail
Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required.
In some countries ...
, on the grounds that as there were no charges, "the
risonerscould not be freed, as the offence was probably too dangerous for public discussion".
Significance
Although the judges had refused to release the prisoners, Charles decided not to pursue charges; since his opponents included the previous Chief Justice, and other senior legal officers, the ruling meant the loans would almost certainly be deemed illegal. So many now refused payment, the reduction in projected income forced him to recall
Parliament in 1628, while the controversy returned "a preponderance of MPs opposed to the King".
Selden claimed afterwards there was an effort made by Charles and Robert Heath to tamper with the rulings of the case, pointing to the fact that both Heath and Hyde were subsequently knighted. While historians have generally agreed with Selden's assertions,
Mark Kishlansky
Mark Kishlansky (October 11, 1948 – May 19, 2015) was an American historian of seventeenth-century British politics. He was the Frank Baird, Jr. Professor of History at Harvard University.
Education and academic career
Kishlansky was born i ...
has disputed them. The
Petition of Right 1628
The Petition of Right, passed on 7 June 1628, is an English constitutional document setting out specific individual protections against the state, reportedly of equal value to Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689. It was part of a wider c ...
reversed the effect of the decision by preventing the power of arbitrary committal by the King. The
Habeas Corpus Act 1640
The Habeas Corpus Act 1640 (16 Car 1 c 10) was an Act of the Parliament of England.
The Act was passed by the Long Parliament shortly after the impeachment and execution of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford in 1641 and before the English ...
restored the right to petition the courts for release against the wishes of the King and his Council.
References
Sources
*
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External links
* {{Cite book, title=The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution 1625-1660, url=https://archive.org/details/constitutionald00parlgoog, date=1906, publisher=
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, editor-last=Gardiner, editor-first=Samuel Rawson, editor-link=Samuel Rawson Gardiner, edition=Third revised, page
57–64chapter=8: The case of the Five Knights, before the King's Bench
Court of King's Bench (England) cases
1627 in law
1627 in England
Royal prerogative
Charles I of England
United Kingdom constitutional case law